That Which Can't Be Seen
by Shadow Chaser
Summary: [Status: Abandoned]. Story will not be completed. Please refer to Dreamer of Fears for the alternate version of this story.
1. Characters

That Which Can't Be Seen

**An Alternate Universe Harry Potter fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

Started: 6/29/03

Summary:

What if Sirius Black remained the Potter's Secret Keeper?  What if things turned out differently on October 31, 1981 when Voldemort was tipped off by a spy within the midst of the group known as the Order of the Phoenix.  A dark, dark brave new and alternate world awaits Harry Potter and his friends, and with it, new dangers and adventures.

Characters:

Harry James Potter – 11 year old boy with gifted magical powers and prowess

Ronald "Ron" Weasley – 11 year old boy, best friends with Harry

Hermione Granger – 11 year old girl, best friends with Harry

James Edward Potter – Auror, member of the Order of the Phoenix

Lily Evans Potter – member of the Order of the Phoenix, assistant to Figg

Sirius Black – Auror, member of the Order of the Phoenix

Remus Julian Lupin – Auror, member of the OP, Transfiguration teacher

Peter Pettigrew – member of the Order of the Phoenix

Regulus Black – brother to Sirius, Death Eater

Bellatrix Lestrange – cousin to Sirius, Death Eater

Nymphadora Tonks – cousin to Sirius, Unspeakable Auror, assistant to Dumbledore

Mundungus Fletcher – theif, member of the Order of the Phoenix

Kingsley Shacklebolt – Auror, member of the Order of the Phoenix

Albus Dumbledore – headmaster of Hogwarts, head of the Order of the Phoenix

Arabella Figg – Squib, protector of Harry Potter

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody – Auror, head of the Dark Force Defense League

Arthur Weasley – works for the Ministry, Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, member of the OP

Weasley Family (Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, Molly)

Severus Snape – Potions teacher

Tremtius Quirrell – DADA teacher

Sybill Trelawney – Divination teacher

Lucius Malfoy – deputy Minister of Magic

Cornelius Fudge – Minister of Magic

Bartemius Crouch – works for Ministry, 2IC of Dark Force Defense League

Original Characters:

Marion Sadow Thatcher – Auror, formerly a part of Crouch's Aurors, member of OP

Marius Sadow – Healer at St. Mungo's, member of OP

Colin Thatcher – Auror, formerly a part of Crouch's Aurors, member of OP

Emmeline Daigger – Unspeakable Auror, Head of Fudge's Aurors

Anri Jordan – High Inquisitor

Melanine Corwin – witch of the High Courts

Kurov Shina – wizard of the High Courts

Torvin Agrin'gar – warlock of the High Courts, High Inquisitor

Of course, there are more characters in this story that have yet to be listed, some you might recognize from my story Dreamer of Fears, others completely new and different in ways.  Others come directly from Book 5, but of course, this being AU their personality has been changed.  (If you can tell, I love Aurors)


	2. Prologue Godric's Hollow, October 31, 1...

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

Started: 6/29/03.

_Prologue – Godric's Hollow, __October 31, 1981_…__

"WAH!"

James Potter groaned into his pillow, muffling the sound of his annoyance.  He blearily opened his eyes and squinted at the still dark windows.  It wasn't even a proper morning, as the sun wasn't still up, and yet his one-year-old son decided to wake him up with his cries.  He turned slowly over to let the back of his head rest against his pillow.  And he was having a good dream about Quidditch…

"Lily…" he whispered, fighting the urge to open his eyes as his body tried to wake his brain up, "go see what Harry wants…"

Beside him, on their king-sized four-poster bed, his wife Lily made a small noise of disagreement.  "It's your turn…I took care of him the last time he woke up…" she murmured sleepily before a shift in the bed told him that she had turned away from him and was already fast asleep.

James sighed and finally allowed his brain to cooperate with his body and opened his eyes slowly.  The room he and his wife shared was dark, but the dim light cast by the full moon shone in all its glory, giving the room an ethereal quality.  He smiled slightly as he propped himself up from his bed and glanced at the moon.  Remus, or Moony as was his good friend's nickname for him, would be resting up in his own house, having been one of the first few to take the newly formed Wolfsbane Potion.

Another burst of crying came from the room adjacent to theirs and it brought James out of his musings.  "Coming Harry…coming…" James muttered underneath his breath as he slipped on a pair of fuzzy rabbit-skin slippers and wrapped his robe around him, cinching it tightly around his waist.  He rubbed his face and stretch, suppressing the urge to yawn and picked up his glasses from his table next to him.

Blinking sleep away from his eyes, he padded his way towards the adjacent room and peered over his son's crib.  The scrunched up, tear-streaked face of his son looked back at him and another cry escape Harry's lips.  James sighed then picked his son up gently from the crib, patting his back gently and saying soothing words.

"Hey there…you okay?" he whispered mostly to himself as he sniffed Harry's bottom…there wasn't any foul smell.  Making a mental check, he knew that Lily had fed Harry two hours ago…so then it had to be that his baby son was just cranky.  He walked over to the rocking chair that Remus had given to them as a baby shower present (along with about hundreds of charmed stars that pasted themselves to Harry's wall and twinkled like the night sky), and sat down, gently holding Harry to his shoulder and rocked him back and forth.

Eventually after a few minutes, Harry's crying stopped and his son hiccupped slightly.  James looked down at the wisps of black hair that set themselves in unruly waves and smiled slightly.  He knew that Harry was going to look like him when he grew up, except he had Lily's eyes…those bright emerald green eyes that right now were closed.

Harry suddenly made a small noise and James watched as his son shifted in his arms, sucking on a thumb and suddenly those emerald green eyes stared back up at him, a curious, innocent expression in them.  "Hey there Harry…have you been dreaming?" he asked, smiling at his son.

Harry immediately responded to the smile with a gurgle of contentment and the hand with the thumb he had been sucking on suddenly popped out of his mouth and made a grab at his glasses.  James pulled his face back, startled at the reflexes of his son…or was he still sleepy (he didn't really know).  "Now, now," he chided him, engulfing his son's small hands with his own and pressed it back to Harry's face where once again the thumb was back in his mouth, "no swiping at Daddy's glasses, okay?"

"Da!" Harry gave a grin, his small baby teeth just coming in.

"Yeah…Dad…" James couldn't help but smile at his son's antics.  He watched for another few minutes as Harry looked around his room, his bright green eyes taking in everything, before turning his gaze towards the window were the full moon shone a bright cast into the room.

A niggling sense of worry filled him…he knew that Voldemort was still out there…hunting him and his family.  He knew of the prophecy that Dumbledore spoke of…and he wondered if having his best friend Sirius be their Secret-Keeper was such a good thing.  Granted he trusted Sirius with his life and with the lives of Lily and Harry…it was just that, like him, Sirius was an Auror and they were bound to be killed during their fight against Voldemort and his followers.  He briefly wondered if they should have switched Secret-Keepers…Peter had said that he would be willing to take the job, but Lily had refused, saying that Sirius was a good choice…

Still, James knew that there was a chance that Voldemort would be hunting another wizarding family like his.  The Longbottoms' son, Neville, after all, was born on the same day Harry was and the Longbottom's too, defied Voldemort and were a part of the Order of the Phoenix, like him and Lily.

Except Dumbledore disagreed…he said that Voldemort was the Heir of Slytherin…and would pursue the Heir of Gryffindor to the ends of the Earth and perhaps beyond.  It was that rivalry between Godric and Salazar that gave James and his family the greater potential to be attacked by the Dark Lord.

But James still wasn't convinced.  He did some research and found out that the Longbottoms were a part of the Twelve Families of the United Kingdom, signifying that they too had ties with the original Founders of Hogwarts and were of Pureblood, like the Potter's (barring the fact that James had married Lily who was Muggle-born).  But the Longbottoms lineage was fuzzy to say the least…and he didn't know to which Founder their origins came from.

But even so, James kept the fact that he was directly from Godric Gryffindor a secret…only his four best friends, Lily, and Dumbledore knew, and he was determined that it stay that way.

A gurgle of contentment brought him out of his musings and he glanced down to see his son sleeping peacefully, a hand curled, gripping the folds of his pajamas and sucking on his thumb.  Reaching over to the table next to Harry's crib, he grabbed the edge of the spare blanket Lily kept folded on the table and covered both him and his son in its folds.  He glanced once more out of the window, and hoped that everything would turn out all right…and soon...

Closing his eyes, he let sleep engulf him and his hand unconsciously drifted to where he usually kept his wand in the folds of his robes if he was wearing them.

                                    *                      *                      *

The bright cheerful day of Halloween was filled with candy and decorations in Godric's Hollow.  Kids of all ages living in the small Muggle community ran around, some pretending to flying on miniature brooms, as it was a cheerful holiday.  Owls flew about, delivering messages back and forth.  In a part of Godric's Hollow that no one knew about stood the Potter house.

James and Lily were forbidden to leave the house or risk their Secret being flung out into the open, so they kept to themselves, playing with baby Harry or writing letters to other members of the Order of the Phoenix.  James was absolutely restless, having been cooped up in the house for over a year and wanted badly to go back to work.

He wondered how Moody was faring with out him…after all he knew that he was one of the Dark Force Defense League's top Auror operative, but he didn't really let the fame go to his head as much as he would have wanted it to when he was younger.  James shook his head silently as he let his thoughts wander back to the days of his teenage years at Hogwarts.  He had to admit, he was a selfish, arrogant bastard back then…but those were also the fun years.  He knew that some of the pranks he pulled on Snape and a few other unfortunate students were childish, but now knowing his fellow Order of the Phoenix member's dire situation…he felt kind of sorry for the old greasy-haired chap.

 But that certainly did not mean he could poke his fun into Snape at times.  Right now, he wished Snape was here so he could give him a good hex or something…he really needed something to do!  He had briefly considered breaking Dumbledore's order that they do not leave their house, but every time he tried to, his thoughts always reverted back to his infant son…and the dangers that preyed upon the world were weighed heavily upon him.

No, he couldn't leave…he couldn't betray the trust Dumbledore had put into him and Lily.  He couldn't break the promise of his best friend Sirius…who so willingly became their Secret-Keeper, even though he had made a target of himself to his family and Lord Voldemort.  He would be faithful to the cause and to the Order of the Phoenix…

"James?" Lily's voice floated from their kitchen and he turned from polishing his broom to see her stick her head out of the flapping door…obviously a Muggle thing.

"Hmm?" he answered, his hands absently stroking the polish onto his Comet Fifty-two…one of the finest brooms ever to be made in his opinion.

"Sirius is on the telephone…" Lily replied and James raised an eyebrow.  As far as he was concerned, Sirius wasn't really adept in using a Muggle telephone and rather used the fireplace to do his calls, but recently, he and Lily had been given a warning that Voldemort knew how to capture and detect people using a Fire Call…so Lily had installed a Muggle phone in their house.

"Uh…sure…be there in a second," he replied, then turned back to his broom and placed his cleaning kit away, gently placing his broom against a wall.  He got up and went into the kitchen where Lily was busy trying to feed Harry who looked absolutely revolted at the spoonful of baby food Lily was trying to feed him.

"Lily?  Where's the fellytone?" he asked.  After even a few months of living with the Muggle contraption he still had trouble finding it…much less use it.  His wife had tried to teach him, but he really just didn't get the purpose of touching little numbers and listening to voices on the other end when you could just see and talk to the person…even feed him or her.

"_Telephone," Lily replied, a bit exasperated, "honestly James…you'd figure by now…"  She pointed to a rectangular thing on the wall._

"Sorry," James replied a bit sheepishly and headed over to the wall and picked up the phone which was off the "hook" or so Lily liked to say.  Tentatively and remembering how Lily said to speak into the phone he asked, "Hello?"

"Jamesie-boy!" Sirius' voice boomed over the other end and James quickly pulled the phone away from his ear.  "HOW ARE YOU?!"

"Sirius," he replied a bit louder than normal, but the noticed the glare from his wife, "lower your voice…I can hear you, ya know…"

"Oh…sorry," Sirius had apparently forgotten how to speak in a telephone but probably just remembered.  James put the phone back close to his ear just as Sirius said, "Um…is Lily mad at me?"

"Sort of…good thing Harry didn't cry this time," James replied as the last time Sirius "called" they had both yelled at each other over the telephone that Harry began to cry from all the noise.

"Oh…good…tell Harry his Uncle Sirius said hi," Sirius' voice was full of amusement.

"Okay…" James replied, grinning at his friend's statement.  "So…what brings you to call us?"

"What?  I can't wish my best friend and his lovely wife a Happy Halloween?" James could almost see a mock wounded expression on his best friend's face and he laughed lightly.

"A Happy Halloween to you too, Snuffles," he replied.

"But in all seriousness…I bring a warning," Sirius began and James could sense the abrupt mood change in his friend and he instinctively turned away from Lily and Harry.  In ways, he was glad that Lily installed the Muggle device…it ensured privacy that wasn't really associated with Fire Calls.

"Yes?" he dropped his voice a bit lower as not to startle his wife or son.

"Dumbledore senses that something's going down…something big either tonight or the next few days.  He and Moody told me to tell you to be on guard…don't trust anyone…period.  Who knows who's using Polyjuice Potion these days…" Sirius warned.

"All right," James replied, "I'll see you on the flipside okay?"

"Prongs…you're already on the flipside," Sirius replied before hanging up the phone.

That confirmed the message that James got.  He knew that with those coded words, there was no way in any falsehood that it was his best friend Sirius Black talking to him, passing on the message from Dumbledore and Moody.  Only four other people knew of his nickname, Prongs.  His wife, Remus, Peter, and Sirius.  And he trusted all of them with his life.

"James?" Lily's concerned voice brought him back around and he gave a false smile in hopes that his wife would buy it.

"Sirius wanted to wish us a Happy Halloween and to say a hi to Harry," James replied in a cheer that he most certainly did not feel before he walked quickly out of the kitchen and headed upstairs to their bedroom.

Closing the door to their bedroom tightly, he knelt down in front of his trunk and popped it open.  On top of his invisibility cloak which was a gift passed down through the males of his family to each firstborn was his wand…mahogany with the core of the tail feather of a griffin, eleven inches, pliable…good for transfiguration…he could hear Ollivander's wizened voice speaking about his wand…

Taking the wand out, he pocketed it neatly in his robes and closed his trunk, locking it securely.  The niggling feeling of trouble was growing stronger in his mind and he knew that something was going to happen…the question was…when.

Standing back up, James headed back downstairs…if things were going to happen, then by whatever gods ruled this world…he was going to be ready to defend his family.

                                    *                      *                      *

Night had fallen peacefully on their part of Godric's Hollow…and the Muggle children who lived there were now out to their costume parties having fun.  James had to admit seeing little children attempt to dress up like goblins, witches and wizards was quite a feat…especially with their garish costumes…  If they only knew…

Lily had made a normal dinner consisting of steak and kidney pie, drumsticks and to finish off with dessert treacle fudge.  He had eaten everything with relish and had even tried to feed Harry some of his treacle.  Of course that lead to Harry spitting it back out at him…which in turn made Lily laugh so hard that she nearly choked on her treacle…and led to a giant mess on their dining table.

Now, James sat by the fire, reading from a Muggle book…Peter Pan, to his son who was looking at the pictures with curiosity.  He and Lily had decided that their son was to be brought up in both the Muggle and wizarding ways…and every other day was for them to read Harry a Muggle picture book.

"So why did Sirius called this afternoon?" Lily suddenly asked while James was in the midst of reading about Peter Pan's adventure with Princess Tiger Lily.

"Uh…to wish us a Happy Halloween," James nearly messed up the excuse he had made earlier…and avoided his wife's emerald eyes that always made him melt on the inside and confess everything.

"James…" her tone went up ever so slightly, "you're not telling me everything…"

"Look…Peter Pan saved the Princess from evil Captain Hook, right Harry?" James decided to ignore her for the moment and pointed out a few colored pictures of Peter Pan and Tiger Lily.

"James…" Lily's voice rose slightly.

"And there's Wendy-"

"James Edward Potter…" Lily's voice was near anger and James finally looked up from reading to Harry to see her glaring at him.

"All right…" he sighed, running a hand through his unruly black hair before adjusting his glasses…a habit for him when he was nervous about something, "Sirius-"

Suddenly there was a knock on their door and he froze, as did Lily.

"Door," Harry gleefully broke the silence with his baby talk.

_Knock.  Knock._

James stared at Lily, seeing the fear in them and he nodded to her.  She got up quietly and he handed Harry over to her, barely missing the imperceptible flick of her getting her wand out and hiding it underneath Harry if she needed to use it.  He himself took out his wand from the folds of his robe and held it up…his Auror-trained senses alert to everything around him.

Only two people knew where they were…Dumbledore and Sirius…  Maybe it was just some kid who stumbled across their Unplottable…maybe on a dare from the kid's friends…he hoped it would be…after all it was Halloween.

He cautiously approached the door, his senses fully alert to any kind of spell, his mind running through the various jinxes, hexes and protection spells he could cast…  Taking a deep breath he opened the door and readied his wand…

"Sirius!" James blinked in surprise as his friend stood in the doorway, his body hunched over.

"James…" was the hoarse whisper coming from the battered body that was his best friend and James reached out and nearly staggered to the ground from the weight of supporting Sirius.

He dragged him in and made a move to shut the door behind him when Sirius reached out with a hand and gripped his arm painfully.  "Don't…" he whispered, sounding like he had screamed his voice sore, "must…leave…"

"Sirius…?" James looked at him, concerned and apprehensive, "what's going on?"

Sirius didn't answer and instead looked up to where Lily and Harry were and James followed his gaze to see a horrified expression on his wife's face, while a curious expression his baby son's.  "Danger…you're all in danger…"  He suddenly made a move towards the door, but James grabbed onto him tightly as a hissing sound escaped his lips.

"You're injured!" he exclaimed, trying to hold back his friend from moving, "don't move…"

"I can't…you have to…escape…now…"

"Sirius?"

"James…they're after you.  After you, Lily, and Harry…"

"The Secret?" James was worried…extremely worried and a pit of uneasiness began to spread from his stomach through his body.

Sirius shook his head…before he cried out, "I'm so sorry James!  I couldn't…they…" he hesitated as if remembering something terrible, "they…tortured me…I-I don't really remember…but…"  He seemed to close in within himself and was reduced to shudders that James had never seen him do before.  He wondered if this was his friend…but then again, torture and the war could change people, he knew that from experience when he worked with a few of his colleagues in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"Sirius…" there was no answer except for a muffled sob coming from the broken body that was his best friend, "Sirius!"

"Yeah?"

"How far behind are they?" James tried to keep his friend talking…if they were in trouble and it seemed very likely as the uneasy feeling grew stronger.

"I…I-I don't know…"

"All right…" James glanced down for a moment before looking up and at Lily, "we'll head to Lupin's…he's not far away…We'll use tonight to blend in with the costumed children…"

Lily nodded and James looked back down at the hunched form of Sirius, "Sirius…can you walk?  We'll be going to Lupin's and then try to contact Dumbledore from there, okay?"

"Okay…" was the hoarse reply and James peered out the door once more and seeing that it was as clear as he could make it out to be, he gestured to Lily to take Harry and move forward…

As his wife brushed past him, James helped Sirius up and taking one last look around the cozy home of Godric's Hollow that had been his house for nearly a year and half he turned back around and stepped out into the night.

                                    *                      *                      *

They had been walking for the last hour or so, occasionally hiding behind buildings or ducking into opened doors as unfamiliar people passed by, some just harmless costumed children and adults coming back from parties, other times, shady characters.  James was already noticing that Sirius seemed to regain some of his strength while they were walking and they had stopped only once when he needed a drink of water from a flask that he had been carrying with him.

Surprisingly, Harry had been silent the whole time they were walking and was just looking curiously at everything around him.   He was proud of his infant son…for being able to put up such an innocent and brave front even when danger was all around them.

Suddenly a prickling sense told James to stop and he held up a hand to warn Lily and Sirius who stopped behind him.  He cast a scanning spell on his wand and detected dark forces moving towards them.  He didn't know what was moving towards them, but he sensed that it was probably Death Eaters, looking for them.

"I think Death Eaters are about…" he whispered before looking around for any shops or buildings they could hide until the danger passed by.

"Here!" Sirius' voice was still hoarse but seemed to be getting better as time went by, and James turned to see Sirius pointing at a decrepit building that seemed unstable but it was also a logical place to hide.

"Come on," he grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her with him and together, they all ran into the building.  "_Lumos_," he whispered as his wand lit up with a small light.  He bit back a cry of surprise as he looked around…  Bones laid everywhere, some with rags of cloth still attached; others looked like they had been chewed on.

"What the…"

"WAH!  WAH!" Harry began to bawl at the grisly sight and James turned to see Lily trying to hush their son from giving away their hiding spot.

"Come on…down here…it'll be safer," Sirius pulled on the sleeve of his robe and he stumbled, trying to keep his wand high up so he could see where he was going.

"Sirius, where the hell are you taking us?" he asked as he quickly grabbed onto Lily's hand for the fear of losing her in all of this…

"The basement is a good place to hide," Sirius said as he led them through rooms.

Alarms suddenly went off in James' head and he stopped forcefully pulling back from Sirius' grip on his arm.  Something wasn't right here…something didn't add up…  "Wait hold on Sirius…"

"What's the matter James?  Do you want those Death Eaters to find you?" Sirius looked at him oddly.

"No…wait…" James shook his head, trying to sort through his jumbled thoughts, "just…wait…Sirius…  How…did you know of this place?"

"Dumbledore had me scouting a few places near Godric's Hollow for contingent plans if your Secret was ever out in the open," Sirius replied in an off-hand manner, "now would you come on!  I don't want Harry to be captured."

James knew that it was logical for Dumbledore to see for any contingent plans…but the Fidelius Charm was nearly unbreakable…only through the death of their Secret-Keeper or if they left Godric's Hollow…  But Sirius was alive…and he did say that they were in danger…were they?

Suddenly it dawned on him…  They had walked straight into a trap…not only did they leave Godric's Hollow, but their Secret was broken and out in the open…and the one to do that to them was…  No, Sirius would never do such a thing; they were almost-brothers the best of friends.  Sirius would never betray them.  James made up his mind…

He lifted his wand and pointed it at Sirius, his eyes narrowed, "No.  I've had enough.  I'm not playing your game.  You'll have to kill us before you get my son."

"James," Sirius, or the person that was Sirius stared at him like he grew another head, "what the hell are you talking about?  Do you think I'm some kind of shape shifter or something?"

"Yes," James let a bit of a dangerous edge he always had when he was an Auror bleed into his voice, "you're precisely that.  Except you're only using Polyjuice Potion.  You're not Sirius Black…You're just an imitation of him…"

There was a moment's pause before Sirius threw his head back and laughed, not the laugh that James was used to, but a more deeper and sinister laugh.  He stepped back and readied his wand, keeping himself in front of his wife and son to shield them.

"Very perceptive James Potter…very perceptive…" the man that was not Sirius stared at them malevolently, "it took you a while, but you finally figured it out…  I applaud you…" he clapped mockingly and James tensed.

"But now…I am dreadfully sorry, but you and your lovely wife must hand over your son to the Dark Lord," the false Sirius thrust a hand out, "now."

"No," James stepped back further and pushed Lily behind who was holding a silent Harry, "you want them…you'll have to go through me."

"I think not…" an oily voice spoke from behind them and James whirled around to see twelve masked Death Eaters approach them from all around, surrounding them.

"Oh…shit…" he muttered underneath his breath as he faced them all…

"You see James Potter…you cannot win…no one can win against Lord Voldemort," James turned to see Sirius' feature melt slightly…but other wise the man that now stood before him looked startling close to his best friend, "I am Regulus Black, Lord Voldemort's most ardent supporter…"

"I can and I will win…there are those who defy him…and we will not falter," James held his wand up in a mock salute, "Lily…take Harry and run…don't look back…"

"James…" he could hear the fear in his wife's voice.

"I love you…" he whispered behind him.

"I love you too…" she replied and he took a deep breath, prepared to die in this battle.

"_Coronum!" he shouted, blasting back a couple of Death Eaters as he leapt at Regulus.  He tackled him to the ground and rolled to his feet, pointing his wand over his shoulder, "__Impedimenta!"_

The Death Eater that had been waiting to ambush him fell back with a thump and James attempted to kick Regulus in the temple to knock him out.  But Regulus ducked his attempt and retaliated with his wand.

"_Crucio!"_

James felt the force of the curse breeze past him as he ducked and then jumped over a pile of bones and rags.  He barely caught a glimpse of his wife fighting her way past other Death Eaters, her arms wrapped protectively around their son.  He had to help her.

"_Incendio!" he let loose a blast of fire from the tip of his wand, knocking aside and setting aflame two Death Eaters who ran away shrieking at the top of their lungs._

Running towards his wife, he pointed his wand to his right, "_Stupefy_!"

"_Colloportus!" the spell knocked James off of his feet and he crashed into a support beam, breaking it.  He hissed in pain as splinters from the broken wood dug into his skin and he landed hard on the ground._

He blearily opened his eyes and suddenly rolled to the side, ignoring the fiery pain that protested with his movement.  Lashing out with a foot, he tripped a Death Eater over and got to his knees…

"_Crucio," the word was so simple, but James' world exploded into pain and he doubled over, screaming._

He could feel tendrils of pain rake all over him, and he writhed in agony and curled up against it.  It was as if someone had ripped his heart out and stabbed him all over the place.  "No!" he screamed as he watched through hazy eyes his wife stumble and fall, the Cruciatus Curse also being put on her.

He reached out vainly, trying to reach his son who had fallen beside her.  "Harry…" he whispered before he screamed again as another wave of pain assaulted his senses.  The last thing he saw before he passed out was a pair of red silted eyes staring at him before turning their gaze onto Harry who looked up with curious eyes.

"_Avada…_Kedavra_…"_

A jet of green light filled the room…and James Potter passed out…

                                    *                      *                      *

**Author's Notes:**

            And so ends the prologue of what looks to be a very long fic.  Hope you enjoyed it so far!  Thanks bunches to Nessie and Algae for beta-reading this!


	3. 10 years later,Welcome to a darker world

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

_Chapter 1 – 10 years later…Welcome to a darker world_

James Potter awoke suddenly, his breath coming in gasps.  Cold sweat beaded his forehead as he pulled himself from his nightmare.  He sat up in the bed that he shared with Lily and ran a hand through his unruly black hair.  Rubbing his face, he sighed…it had been so long…almost a decade to say the least…

Glancing around blurrily into the bedroom, he could make out indistinct shapes of clothing, chairs and his dresser.  He wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew that his mind was too full of information for him to sleep soundly.  Looking at the clock on the mantle, he noticed that it was at least an hour and half before he was to report to work…

Work…ten years ago it was trying to defeat Voldemort.  Now, with things changed, it was different, but not by much.  Something happened to Voldemort to make him disappear, and most of his followers repented (though James did not believe one word of their repentance), but still others continued his crusade.  As an Auror, James was responsible for hunting down rogue wizards and witches who were still trying to benefit from Voldemort's legacy and name.  And though he enjoyed the fame that came from it, he didn't really let it distract him too much.

He was second in skills to Alastor Moody, or Mad-Eye Moody as he was known for his roaming eye, and was one of the best field operatives in the Dark Force Defense League.  He gave it his all and received only a few benefits, but then again, James had grown up a lot over the last few years, having witnessed and survived the horrors Voldemort bore upon his family.  He never knew how his son survived or even how he and Lily survived…he had expected Voldemort to kill them…

He had tried to ask others that rescued them what had happened, but they all looked at him strangely.  He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that maybe he wasn't supposed to survive.  The oddest thing was that Sirius had looked at him like he was a Death Eater when he mentioned casually that his brother had taken Polyjuice Potion and had tricked him and Lily to leave their home.  Sirius then vehemently denied that he had ever told his brother or anyone their Secret.  James didn't blame his best friend, after all, he trusted him with his life, but something still didn't add up.  Even Remus and Peter denied anything to do with Death Eaters and their ambush.

When he found out that Voldemort was "destroyed", as the Ministry had officially put it, he was shocked, and even more when he found out that somehow, his son reflected the Killing Curse back to the Dark Lord.  But the good thing was that Harry was safe and he and Lily didn't need to worry about Voldemort coming after them anymore…for now.

But still, the prophecy scared him.  He knew that somehow, in the future, Voldemort was going to come back and have his revenge against him and his family.  Which was why he worked as an Auror.  The first wind of Voldemort returning and he would be there to squash the Dark Lord.  No harm would come to his family as long as he was there to protect them…

Thumping back onto his bed, James rolled to his side and closed his eyes…he didn't want to think about anything anymore…  All he wanted was a goodnight's rest…

                                    *                      *                      *

_On __October 31, 1981_ a miraculous thing happened that no one in the wizarding world expected.  The Dark Lord Voldemort had been terrorizing the world by killing both Muggles and wizard alike, converting them to become his minions or just transforming them into unrecognizable masses.  He wanted absolute power and was on the verge of getting it when a prophecy was spoken about the one who was to defeat him:__

_THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES…BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES…AND THE DARK LORD WILL MAKR HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT…AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES…THE ONEWITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARKLORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES…_

_There were two wizarding families whose son was born on the 31st of July.  Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter.  Both families worked secretly for the Order of the __Phoenix_, a group of wizards and witches who defied Voldemort in every step of the way, except they weren't a part of the Ministry…instead were completely loyal to Albus Dumbledore.__

_But both families were also tempting targets for anyone working for Lord Voldemort.  Both families were a part of the 12 Families of the __United Kingdom__…families who were pureblood and could trace their lineage to the four founders of __Hogwarts__School__ of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Only Albus Dumbledore, the Potters, and a few friends knew of the Potter's lineage…their direct ancestry to Godric Gryffindor, which was rare in cases because most families' lineages were very twisted and convoluted.  Even the Longbottoms had trouble tracing their lineage as their families were placed in various houses, from Gryffindor to Slytherin and everything in between._

_So somehow mysteriously armed with this knowledge the Dark Lord tracked the Potters down, and ambushed them with the help of his minions, but unfortunately he did not hear most of the prophecy, only hearing half of it and it was a part of his downfall.  He tried to kill baby Harry Potter, but somehow the Killing Curse backfired and Voldemort was caught in the aftermath of the curse._

_Afterwards, Harry Potter became known as The Boy Who Lived… as a famous face in the wizarding world.  But fame didn't reach him as he was secluded from it.  James and Lily Potter best thought for their son to grow up as a normal wizarding boy would, except with some Muggle basics and remained at Godric's Hollow, except they made their cottage house into a Muggle one.  They didn't want their son to be pampered like the rich and famous usually brought up their kids.  It was quite unbecoming of children like that…_

_And so the years past, with various battles between the forces of the Ministry against the remnants of Voldemort's followers, the Veela Attacks of 1983 occurred with full blown incident, turning some of Crouch's Aurors into seclusion…  The Crisis of Diagon Alley was averted by Alastor Moody and his Dark Force Defense League which also propelled James Potter and Sirius Black into the high ranks of popularity and legend among the wizarding people._

_But as ten years have gone by…the forces of darkness have crept back into the world…nameless whispers of an evil returning…and as Harry enters his first year at Hogwarts, a darker world welcomes him._

_Welcome to the darker world, where legends are tested and myths come true.  Welcome to things which cannot be seen…_

                                    *                      *                      *

Harry Potter was an ordinary boy…as ordinary as could be considering he was a wizard and had the barest knowledge of what kind of popularity he had.  All he knew was what his parents told of his scar.  He had received it when he was very young by a dark wizard and that was that.  He had tried to ask his parents and his surrogate "Uncles" what had happened and why did a dark wizard want to give him a scar, but they steadfastly refused to answer any of his questions, and said that when he was older his questions would be answered.

He did things any ordinary boy would, except he knew he played with Muggle children and had to act like a Muggle when he was around them.  Magic was forbidden in the house and outside unless he was supervised by either his parents or one of his three Uncles.  And he was absolutely forbidden to fly a broom.  He wanted to badly after going to the Quidditch World Cup of 1986 and 1990, but his father was stern and refused to buy him a broom, much less let any of his Uncles pamper him.

Harry knew that his father was famous, but what he suspected that the wizarding community didn't know was that his father was also very stern with him…not in the sense of strict disciplining he had seen with his other Muggle friend's families.  He knew that his father was concerned about his safety and wellbeing.  He suspected that his father's stern demeanor with him fell under the "questions-to-be-answered-when-you-are-older category."  What he didn't understand was why his father kept so many secrets from him…

His mother on the other hand was as any sweet mother would, and gave him encouragement and guidance everyway, but even she kept secrets from him.  Harry knew that his mother was Muggle-born and knew how to interact better with the Muggles in their community of Godric's Hollow than his father who was an absolute klutz in dealing with Muggles.  His Uncle Sirius was even worst…but at least his Uncle Remus and Uncle Peter had the sense to at least live in the Muggle community for the last few years.

He knew that there were more wizard-kids like him, but they were a rare sight for him as he knew that any Muggles to see wizard-folk would probably commit themselves or even his family into an asylum.  He had seen it in the Dailey Prophet and in the local Muggle paper.  His mother always warned him not to reveal his magical powers in front of his Muggle friends and he was careful about it.

But nonetheless, he possessed all the curiosity and exuberance of a pre-teen boy and wanted at times to show off.  He had, when he was seven years old, and paid some serious punishment for his actions.  His father grounded him to his room without any of his toys and he had to think up of reasons why he shouldn't do magic in front of Muggles.

Even his mother was furious at him…but eventually they simmered down and he had really learned his lesson.  But that still didn't stop the uncontrollable outbursts of magic he had at times.

He never told his parents or anyone, but he had been having magical bursts of power since he received his scar and when it flared in pain, that was when he lashed out with magic.  He didn't know if it was a good thing or not as he didn't want to worry his parents, but even then…it was like the Muggle equivalent of a seizure.  At times, they were minimal, but sometimes they hurt a lot and he had to curl up in his room, stuffing a pillow in his mouth to stifle any screaming he was probably doing.

Once, his parents came close to discovering his magical outbursts, but an incident outside with a Muggle neighbor had prevented them from entering his room and the "seizure" passed quickly.  He didn't know what caused it…but he knew it was related to his scar.

Now, as he awoke, Harry stretched lazily on his bed.  He grinned outwardly as he stared up at the blurry ceiling.  Today was his birthday!  His eleventh birthday!  His parents mentioned something about a wizarding school that occurred on every wizard and witch's birthday and he hoped today was the day he would find out about this wizarding school.

Reaching over to the nightstand beside his four poster bed, he put it on and stared around at his sunlit room.  The curtains were still drawn to his windows, but little slits of sun peeked in.  It was a perfect day for his birthday and the humidity in his room told him that it wasn't going to be sweltering either.  He flipped his covers away from him and hopped off of his bed, running towards his dresser to pick out some clothes.

A pair of jeans, underpants, red shirt…perfect.  Opening the door he dashed to the bathroom and emerged a few minutes later, refreshed and awakened.  He glanced at the digital clock in his room and saw that it was mid-morning, nearly ten-thirty in the morning.  That was odd…he wondered if his parents deliberately left him to sleep late because of his birthday…

"Harry?" his mother's gentle voice spoke from his door and he spun around a grin on his face.

"Morning Mom," he greeted cheerfully.

Lily smiled back, "Happy Birthday Harry.  Dad's at work at the moment, but he said that he'll try to be back before tonight."

The way his mom said tonight made Harry wonder…  "Tonight?"

"Yes…" his mom's smile grew, "after your party this afternoon, Dad's invited your Uncles and a few of his close friends to celebrate your birthday tonight…the wizarding way."

"Cool!" he grinned widely.  It was rare for his parents to allow him the luxury of having a wizard birthday for their close proximity to Muggles.  He knew that today had to be a very special birthday for him to have a wizard birthday.  The last one he was at was for his parents' 10th wedding anniversary.

"Well then, you better start preparing for your friends to come over, wouldn't you?" Lily held up a cleaning cloth and some cleaning solution to which Harry grimaced for a second before he reluctantly took them.  He really hated cleaning and wished that he was allowed to use magic to clean things as he had seen his mother do so many times.

"Do I have to?" he whined a bit.

"Yes," Lily laughed lightly, "don't worry, you only have to polish the piano and a few of the stuff on the fireplace mantle.  I did the rest for you…"

Well, that wasn't so bad, he thought mostly to himself.  At least he only have to clean their baby grand and the fireplace wasn't too dirty as he knew that in the past few days there weren't too many Fire Calls so he didn't have to get completely dirty from all the soot and ashes.

"Thanks Mom," he called back to her as he made his way downstairs.  Yep, today was a special day!

                                    *                      *                      *

Lily watched as her only son disappeared downstairs.  She smiled wistfully then glanced at his room.  She was going to have to have him clean it after he was done polishing the baby grand and the mantle.  Harry was just as untidy as his father.  Honestly…she figured that all men were created the same, to be untidy.  Only women seemed to be the ones tidy.  Well, not particularly one woman she knew.  Her best friend Marion Sadow was as untidy as any man, and through no fault of hers.  She was just not really a natural tidy-upper person.

But Marion had other things to worry now.  Lily sighed and let the wistful smile drop from her face.  At times she wondered for the sanity and sake of her best friend and of her husband.  Marion and her husband Colin Thatcher were a part of Crouch's Aurors, a group of Aurors that James strongly opposed because of their unorthodox methods of dealing with rogue criminals, Death Eaters, and dark creatures.

Using the Unforgivable Curses were unheard of in society and were only associated with Death Eaters and criminals that had nothing to lose.  But Barty Crouch, second-in-command of the Dark Force Defense League had authorized use for Aurors that followed his lead, Aurors who started to call themselves Crouch's Aurors.  Lily thought she knew her best friend like the back of her hand, but when Marion joined with Crouch's Aurors, she was surprised.  She was even more surprised when Marion married Colin Thatcher who had been two years ahead of them and was one of the quietest and meekest of all Ravenclaws Lily had ever met.  And the surprises didn't stop there…  Colin had been the one to persuade Marion to join Crouch's Aurors and had signed up himself…a move Lily never expected from the former Ravenclaw.

She never new Colin's motives for joining one of the most controversial Auror branches, but she was surprised that the two were involved in the Veela Attacks of 1983 after trying to quell an uprising of a group of Veelas in France.

Now, she didn't know what the two were doing and only met them through the random meetings of the Order of the Phoenix, but even then she felt so alienated from her best friend.  She knew that Crouch's Aurors regularly clashed with James and his band of Aurors and wondered if a rift of allies was building up.

Perhaps she might ask her husband tonight when he returned.  After all, it was 10 years since the events and things should have simmered a bit.  She glanced at Harry's digital clock and hoped that James was doing fine with his work.  Lately, things seemed to be a bit more harried than normal.  She hoped that it wasn't any signs that Voldemort had returned as she fervently believed, like her husband, that Voldemort wasn't completely eliminated, but incapacitated severely when he tried to attack their son.

But as a precaution, she always kept her wand by her side, even when sleeping.  She never wanted to be caught off guard so badly like she and James did on October 31, 1981.

                                    *                      *                      *

**Author's Notes:**

            Yes, a short chapter.  I know, I usually write longer ones than this, but I feel that this is good place to end.  Hope you're enjoying it so far and I like to thank my betas Algae and Nessie for reading this.  I'd also like to thank the following reviewers for giving me great reviews: JoeBob1379, q, Padfoot79, Elven Warrior, Jade-chan, urain, Ayla Lupin, Hermione HP, Fanyar, Brie Cheese Eater, Cataclysmic, Tonks, and CapriceAnne Hedican-Kocur.  Thanks guys!


	4. 10 years later, the Ministry of Magic

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters associated with the books do not belong to me.  They belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.  I own my own original characters.  Please ask if you would like to use them.

_Chapter 2 – 10 years later…The Ministry of Magic_

Like Lily, James always kept his wand at his side, but for other reasons besides being caught off guard.  As an Auror, he had to be on a constant lookout for any sign of evil, but even the best of Aurors couldn't see everything.  Ever since the defeat of Lord Voldemort, Aurors were reduced to just basic law enforcement, save for the occasional dark wizard raid, and things seemed to have died down a lot in the office.  Or so the Daily Prophet reported.  No one was allowed into the offices of Aurors, except Aurors themselves or their families, unless they had express written permission from the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, or the Head of the Dark Force Defense League, Mad-Eye Moody.

And since no one was allowed in without expressed permission no one knew of the inner turmoil that besieged the Aurors.  Sure the Daily Prophet printed rumors of rival Aurors, but even they didn't know how close to the truth they were.  There was tension between Aurors, especially the two main factions: Those that followed Mad-Eye Moody and James Potter, and those that followed Barty Crouch.

Moody's Aurors (though they tended to call it Potter's Aurors because of James' experience and youthful persona – Moody was just twitchy and nervous for most of the time) and Crouch's Aurors.  Even though Mad-Eye and Barty were first and second in command of the Dark Force Defense League they were still rivals.  And James dared not to interfere in their political battles…yet he wondered when would be the day the ice broke.  Recently, though, it seemed that Mad-Eye was more paranoid than usual and Barty was more radical than usual.

Now as James took the lift to Level 2 where the Auror offices were, he tentatively walked out…wondering if any of Crouch's Aurors were going to spring a trap or a prank on him.  It was usual stuff now, each day at work, for both factions to play pranks and tricks on each other.  Yes, it was childish, but with the lack of activity to do, it was the next best thing until an assignment came up.

"So how's wifie?" a purring voice whispered in his ear and James nearly jumped out of his skin, but only his training froze him to the ground and he tensed slightly.  He recognized the voice…and it belonged to none other than Emmeline Daigger…a Crouch Auror.

He turned around, noting that the charmed windows shone with a bit of hazy clouds, but otherwise clear skies.  Giving Emmeline a sardonic smile, he tipped an imaginary hat at her, noting that she had, again, dyed her hair, this time to a golden honey color that actually brought out her pale purple eyes.  "A good morning to you too, Ms. Daigger," he greeted, just letting a bit of irritation show in his voice.

Emmeline was always up to no good, especially since she graduated Hogwarts at the same time he did, except she had been placed into Slytherin.  She was as cunning as deceitful, but one thing that separated her from Death Eater was the fact that she knew some sense of good.  She knew where her loyalties laid…at least that was the impression James got.  He didn't want to be too paranoid for the slight fear of turning into a twitchy Auror like Mad-Eye.

But still, Emmeline was one of the biggest pranksters they had on the force, always hexing and cursing his team of Aurors.  He knew that he would have to deal with her in the future after all, he was third-in-command, but for now, he'll just register a complaint to either Mad-Eye or Crouch (he would rather complain to Mad-Eye than Crouch).

"So polite, Mr. Potter," Emmeline smiled slyly, "my, my someone woke up on a good side today."

Now James was really irritated and he sighed, running a hand through his unruly hair, "What do you want Emmeline?  Are you here as a diversionary tactic or is someone going to pull a prank on me?"

"What ever do you mean?" Emmeline asked sweetly, but her eyes told other wise, "It's your son's birthday, is it not?"

"Yes…" James dragged the word out slowly, wondering what was this all about, "its Harry's birthday…"  He knew that his son's birthday was public knowledge, especially since he was The Boy Who Lived.

"Oh…good…just tell him that I wish him a Happy Birthday, that's all," Emmeline replied before flashing him a smile and turning towards the lift.  She waved a small goodbye to him as the doors closed on her and James shook his head.  It was just a friendly encounter…he reminded himself, nothing to get all edgy about.  Still he didn't feel reassured.

Shrugging off the encounter, he walked towards the door and paused briefly to wonder if any spells were put on the door.  He could sense that there was none and tapped the doorknob just to be sure.

Nothing.

_James, old boy, you are getting paranoid in this day and _age, his mental voice chided him and James smirked at no one before opening the door and stepping through…

SPLASH!

At least three gallons of water poured onto him and in the rush of water, James could distantly hear groans coming from his co-workers.  However, his mind wasn't focused on the groans, it was focused solely on the fact that he was drenched like a drowned rat – from head to toe.

He blinked slowly as the water finished pouring over him and watched as beads of water dripped down his glasses and started to form a nice puddle at his feet.  _I am so going to kill her…_he thought to himself as he stared at the puddle.  Not a magical trick had been played on him, but a Muggle one…one he wasn't even expecting.  No wonder he couldn't sense anything magically wrong.

"We tried to warn you," came the sheepish voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt to whom James just looked up and glared at.  The youngish Auror, only a few years younger than he was, backed away, holding his hands up in defense.

"Leave me alone," he growled at his co-workers and they backed away from him, sensing that his mood wasn't at all, too pleasant.  He stalked past them, intent on getting dry in his own little cubicle-office.  Damn Emmeline and Crouch's Aurors.  Damn them all.

                                    *                      *                      *

An hour and half later, when he was dry again, James leaned back against his chair, feeling the wheels on it squeak a bit before they halted themselves to prevent him from rolling into the walkway between all cubicles.  It was a Muggle office chair, but he had charmed it to stop him from wheeling all around when he didn't want it to.

He wanted to smile as it was his son's eleventh birthday, a special day in the wizarding world, but the reports on his desk told him otherwise.  There had been more dark creatures and possible Death Eater attacks last night in the Winchester region.  Many people were afraid, Muggles and wizards alike.  The Muggles called it some rabid animal attack, which was rare, and Muggle authorities told everyone to stay in their homes at night and not to venture out.

He had sent a team out to investigate the attacks, and had yet to hear from them, but he knew that investigations took time.  What he didn't get was the fact of dark creatures roaming around in near daylight.  They weren't prone to attacking Muggles, but why now?  Was it because of something to do with Voldemort?

He believed that Voldemort wasn't completely destroyed on October 31, 1981, but very few of his colleagues and friends shared his sentiment.  Only his closest friends shared it.  But he rarely told anyone his suspicions as he knew that they would sooner lock him up in St. Mungo's insane ward than believe him.  It was the price of his fame.  He knew many looked up to him and even pitied him – but what power did he have?

"Yo!  James!" the cheerful voice of his best friend Sirius Black startled him from his musings.  He nearly fell out of his chair as he spun around to see his handsome and roguish friend grinning at him.  "Ha ha!  Got ya!"

"Oh shut up Padfoot," James returned the grin and gestured for Sirius to grab a chair, "what's up?"  Sirius was his best friend, his brother, and his dearest companion besides Lily.  They were inseparable, and though many believed that Sirius nearly betrayed him, Lily, and Harry to Voldemort, James didn't believe one word.  He knew Sirius.  He knew that his friend would never do such a thing.

Eventually though, many forgave Sirius, but James knew that his best friend still got dark looks from a few wizards who disliked the popularity of his best friend.  But Sirius was a damn fine Auror, one of the best, and if James had to choose anyone of his Aurors that he had trained or worked with, Sirius topped them all.  He briefly wondered what kind of life they would have if Voldemort was still in power but squashed the thought as Sirius poked him again.

"Stop spacing out Prongs.  I thought you're the best Auror – can't have you spacing out.  What if Death Eaters suddenly attacked here?  Then you'd be caught off guard," the corner of his lips quirked up into a smile.

"Death Eaters are too stupid to attack here Sirius.  There's so many wards – it's suicide," James waved his comment away, "did you finish the report?"

"Yeah.  The Veelas in France are still fuming from 1983, but that's usual.  I still can't believe Colin Thatcher really screwed it up," Sirius commented a bit sourly on the Auror named Colin Thatcher.  Though he was part of Crouch's Aurors, James really didn't hold anything to the former Ravenclaw.

He was surprised though that the negotiations went sour back then.  Colin was a real diplomat.  He always wondered what really happened, and though Colin did write up a report, it didn't really have too much detail in it.  All it basically said was that negotiations went wrong during a talk.  He had considered asking the Auror what happened, after all, he was third in command and had the right to know what happened, but decided to put it off.  If Colin or Marion, his wife, wanted to talk, then they could – on their own time.

"Yeah, I know what you mean.  Give it time.  We won't send them back though.  I was thinking of sending maybe you or Astra Porch, don't know though," James replied.  They needed the Veela support in France.  That was where the source of many dark creatures had been and Veelas had their own brand of magic – powerful stuff – and James knew that their value as allies were great.  Though he could always as Beauxbatons for help as some of their students were part Veela, he didn't want to remind the Headmistress, Olympe Maxime, that he was the one making the request.  During the Tri-wizard Tournament of 1974, he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had played a huge prank on the students of Beauxbatons, and got caught by their Headmistress.

Their punishment was menial tasks to the mighty steeds that carried the French wizarding academy's house, and that meant shoveling shit…

"Astra's good at negotiations.  She did it for the vampires after Voldemort fell, so she can do it to the Veelas," Sirius replied.

"She's half-vampire, Sirius.  Of course she was able to negotiate with them," James shook his head at his friend's seemingly stupid moments.  Though Sirius was very intelligent in his own right, there were times his best friend didn't really think.  Astra Porch was half-vampire, but a good Auror and negotiator.  She also took on the roles as an Unspeakable to protect her identity, which was a good thing – as Barty Crouch Sr. had a huge dislike for half-breeds or creatures of that sort.

"I think we should send Snape to the vamps," Sirius suddenly piped up.  "He'd be able to fit right in there!"

"Sirius…" James warned.  Though he didn't really like his former classmate, now the Potions teacher at Hogwarts, he still respected him as a turned Death Eater – a spy willing to sacrifice anything and everything for Dumbledore.  Though he didn't know the details, he knew that Severus Snape was a good man.  Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Sirius' opinion of Snape.

"What?  That'll teach him to wash his greasy hair," Sirius grumbled.

"Oh stop it.  You'll start sounding like Umbridge," James suppressed a shudder of fear and disgust.  Dolores Umbridge was the worst thing that happened to the Ministry of Magic as far as he was concerned.  The woman was a part of Cornelius Fudge's staff, Fudge as the Minister of Magic, but was as nosy as a Niffler looking for gold and shiny objects.

"Ew, hell no!  Don't compare me with that old bat," Sirius also shuddered, but then suddenly brightened, "hey, we're still going to the shop right?"

"Yeah…I'll be free as soon as I hear from the team I sent out to Winchester," James replied.  He and Sirius were going to get Harry a birthday present – and though Harry didn't know it yet, it was going to be something real special.

"Oh yeah…how's that going?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know.  You tell me, Padfoot.  How the hell are dark creatures wandering around in near daylight – even dusk?"

"Voldemort?"

James shrugged.  He and Sirius were the only few who weren't afraid to say the Dark Lord's name.  Everyone he knew just said, You-Know-Who.  "That's what I'm thinking, but it doesn't make sense.  I mean, why now if he's returned?"

Sirius had opened his mouth to reply when James sensed the beginnings of use of magic.  With his honed Auror skills, he stepped out of his cubicle, wand drawn, and suddenly fought down the urge to groan out loud.  Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy.  One he was happy to see, the other, he wanted to hex to the ends of the universe.

Both were staring at each other with malevolent hate evident on their faces.  The Aurors near them in their cubicles had backed away, as they knew the animosity between the two.  If they started to cast spells on each other then things were going to get messy, messier than what the Auror offices already looked like.

"Arthur, Lucius!" James called out as he pocketed his wand and strolled towards them.  "Lucius, I've been meaning to talk to you." He made a beeline towards the older wizard, noting that the wand in Malfoy's hand was beginning to shake, not a very good sign.

As he approached, he grabbed Malfoy by his arm and literally steered him away from Arthur, "Lucius, there's something you wanted to discuss with me?" he met Malfoy's stare of hatred with his own warning gaze for the Deputy Minister to not push the issue.  His stare also conveyed that if Malfoy used magic within the Auror offices, then he would be brought up on charges and apparently Malfoy got the message as he hissed.

"Yes.  There's something.  I wouldn't want that filthy Mudblood-lover Weasley to know…" Lucius emphasized the last part and before anyone could do anything, James knew that things gone sour.

There was a flurry of movement from Arthur but before he could reach Malfoy, Sirius and a few of the Aurors who were in the cubicles had jumped the man and held him back from lashing out against Malfoy.

James however, glared at Malfoy, but also directed his next words to the two men, "Both of you.  Stop being so childish!  If either of you ever do that in front of me again, you'll be brought up on charges.  And that includes you too Malfoy," he let venom drip in his voice before he roughly grabbed the Deputy Minister who looked coldly at him, and led him away.

"Sirius, deal with Arthur," he called back before the door to the Auror's offices slammed with a close.

                                    *                      *                      *

Later that day, James and Sirius walked down towards [_insert broom shop name_], trying to avoid crowds of people who were on their daily errands.  A few recognized them and said "hi" while children came up for their autographs.  James was reluctant to sign any, but Sirius signed away happily.

James didn't want fame.  He didn't want to be recognized, but Halloween, 1981 changed all of that.  He supposed that he could live with the fact that he was famous, but he didn't want his son to grow up like that.  He didn't want his son to be spoiled and brattish and so rarely let him see the wizarding world in which he was so famous in.

"So, we're getting him a broom?" Sirius finished signing a little girl's hat and continued walking.

"Yep.  Though I know First Years aren't allowed to bring brooms, I want him to have one for now…"

"Wow…and I thought you were the oh-so-stern parent," Sirius slapped him on the back, "what did you do with the real James?  Huh?  Come back!"

"Sirius…" James shook his head.

"What?"

"Get married.  Have kids.  Then you'll know."

"Sorry.  I'm just a bachelor!"

                                    *                      *                      *

**Author's Notes:**

            Wow…it's been so long since I wrote in this fic.  Sorry if it sounds so messy.  I've been on a LoTR streak.  ^_^  Hope my interpretation of James and Sirius was good.  I don't want to mess up on two dead characters.  *Sniff*


	5. Birthday surprises

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters associated with the books do not belong to me.  They belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.  I own my own original characters.  Please ask if you would like to use them.

_Chapter 3 – Birthday surprises_

The brightly lit chocolate ice-cream cake spelled out [**Happy Birthday Harry!**] and was decorated with plastic red balloons had been destroyed.  Utterly and completely destroyed.  The only remaining survivor of the cake was just the chocolate ice-cream smeared red balloons.  The rest of it was gone, consumed in the bellies of Harry's friends and neighbors that had come to his birthday party.

Now Lily was washing the plastic balloon clean as Harry cleaned up the remnants of the Muggle party from their living room.  Though he knew that tonight's party was going to be full of adults and no children, Harry still felt butterflies in his stomach in the anticipation of it.

His first wizard party and he was the cause of that celebration!  He couldn't wait!  Humming an aimless tune to himself, he quickly dumped paper plates and plastic forks into a giant black trash bag.  It was starting to get heavier as he lugged it around the room, but he didn't mind.  He liked the work at the moment – it gave him something to do other than sit in his room milling over his presents.

He had received a lot of presents, some of which were his favorite games and books to read.  He would have liked to sit down and look over each of his presents from his friends at grammar school, but his mom had insisted that he clean up first – naturally, the Muggle way, before doing anything else.

It was late afternoon and his mom had poked her head out of the kitchen to tell him that the first of their guests was going to arrive within an hour.  That didn't give him much time to clean up, he realized.  He tried to quicken his pace, but the garbage bag was getting heavier.

"MOM!" he called out and moments later, Lily's red head poked out from the swinging door.

"What is it Harry?"

"Can you help me carry this?  It's too heavy," he replied, tugging on the bag to indicate he didn't have the necessary strength.

"Hold on, give me a second, Harry.  I need to clean my hands," his mom replied and disappeared back into the kitchen before reappearing seconds later, wiping her hands on a checkered apron she was wearing.

"Did you clean up everything?" she asked and Harry nodded.  "Okay…" his mom bent down and pulled, but the bag didn't budge.  Harry frowned and decided to help as she pulled again and he pulled too.  Still, the bag didn't move.

"Wow," his mom commented, frowning, "you guys eat a lot."

"Eh…" Harry grinned sheepishly.  It wasn't his fault that Damien and Scott could clean half of his cake up without break a sweat.

"All right…I guess since Dad's not here then…" she pulled out her wand and Harry blinked, surprised.  His mom rarely used her wand and he grinned as he wanted to see a spell at work.  Magic was somewhat of a novelty to him as he rarely experienced or saw it.

"_Mobiliquilliae!" she said in a gentle voice and the garbage bag floated a few inches off of the ground and started to move in the direction of their garage.  Harry let out a breath he never knew he had been holding and watched in wonderment as his mom floated the garbage bag out to the garage with ease._

She returned a few minutes later, a bit pale and fatigued looking, but otherwise she had a smile on her face.

"Mom, you all right?" Harry asked, wondering why his mom looked pale.

"I'm fine.  It's the smell.  Your father forgot to take the garbage out today when he left for work," Lily smiled and reached down to ruffle his head, to which Harry turned away, "now, go get cleaned up.  You can look at your presents until the guests arrive."

"Yeah!" Harry cheered as he quickly hugged his mom before dashing up the stairs to his room.  
                                                *                      *                      *

The party started off with a literal BANG!  And as showers of confetti still rained down upon the sparks given off by wands, Harry was in the middle of it all, starry-eyed with wonderment.  It was all adults for tonight, but still, to Harry; it felt like children were with him.

Of course, naturally, Sirius was practically a child in a man's body, and that didn't deter him from having fun with Harry.  Both of them gleefully played a few pranks on some of the guests that had come, especially Lily's parents who were completely Muggle, but understood magic.  They had left early, though, because of Lily's father's health problem.

Though Harry wasn't allowed to do magic, he still had fun running around with Sirius as the other adults had conversations of their own, setting up both Muggle and magical pranks.  Once or twice they had to hide from the ever watchful eyes of Lily, but when James looked at them, he only nodded and smiled before turning to another person to strike up a conversation.

All of Harry's Uncles had come to the party and Harry was very glad of that.  He missed seeing Uncle Peter and Remus and most of all, his godfather Sirius.  There were two other guests he didn't really know, but found out that they were friends of his mom and their names were Marion and Colin.

Colin was very friendly and approachable in Harry's opinion, but Marion kind of scared him a little.  Though she was very pretty, in Harry's opinion, she seemed cold and aloof, but he managed to say a hello to her and found that she had a nice smile.  His mom wasn't fazed at all by Marion, so Harry relaxed a little.

But what kept him distracted for most of the time was the clothing they all wore.  It was like a sea of robes and a few pointy hats.  They weren't at all like Muggle clothes, more like the Renaissance clothing he had seen in his school's picture-history book.  In deep hues, and various patterns, Harry felt a sense of belonging among the wizards in the room.

And so he felt a little out of place with his Muggle clothes on, but seeing that his mom wasn't keen on putting on robes, he didn't really feel that self conscious anymore.  He particularly liked his Uncle Remus' robe, it was a deep purple, a bit shabby in places, but it had small twinkling stars on them.  He thought that it would be cool to have a robe like that.

When it was time to open the presents, Harry eyed the corner where boxes, some misshapen and a few odd looking packages laid, and tentatively opened the first one from Uncle Remus.  It was a book titled "_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration."  He looked at his uncle curiously and his uncle just smiled knowingly.  The second present was from his Uncle Peter, who gave him a chess set, to which Harry grinned.  He loved chess!_

"This isn't Muggle chess Harry it's wizard's chess," Peter warned and Harry nodded, but then noticed a weird look on his father's face, as if he was going to burst out laughing at any second.  Feeling a bit uneasy, he set aside the chess set and was handed two packages from Marion.

"This one is from us, this one is from my brother Marius – I'm sorry he couldn't come today, business in the shop," Marion apologized as she pointed out the two dark blue and green foil wrapped packages.

"Its okay," Harry replied before opening the dark green foil.  What he found was a curious looking scope that whirled and buzzed slightly.  "What's this?" he picked it up and looked at it curiously.

"A sneakoscope.  The big ones really work, that's just a toy model," Marion replied, "honestly…Marius is a nutter like Mad-Eye."

"Who?" Harry asked, curious.

"Nothing, nothing," Marion replied, grinning at him.

Harry shrugged and went back to opening the dark blue foiled package.  When he unwrapped it, his eyes widened in surprise.  It was a beautiful pewter figuring of a dragon.  A very pretty dragon…a dragon that moved?

Harry watched as the dragon reared up on its hind legs and gave him a little roar of greeting before curling back up, its pewter wings folding around him like a blanket.

"Wow, Marion, Colin, where did you get that?" his mom asked, impressed.

"Last assignment was to Romania – we picked up a few souvenirs on our way home," Colin shrugged, but he had a small smile on his face.

"Wicked cool…" Harry gently picked up the dragon figuring who gave him a sleepy look before curling back up.

"May I take a look Harry?" his mother asked, holding her hand out and Harry gave it to her, just as Sirius presented to him a present that was cover in fuzzy black wrapping paper.

"Sirius!  I thought you said-"

"I'm his godfather, I can spoil him if I want," Sirius cut off his father and Harry glanced up at the two, wondering what they were talking about.  "Go on, Harry, open it."  He saw his godfather stick his tongue out at his dad childishly before giving him a huge grin.

He unfolded layers and layers of fuzzy black wrapping paper before he reached the middle and found a card.  Opening it, Harry read it and then glanced at his godfather, puzzled.  "It says, 'To Mr. Harry James Potter, I present to you Hedwig, to be picked up Eeylops Owl Emporium.'"

"Yep, just show them the card and they'll know what to do," Sirius grinned.

"You didn't…" James on the other hand, looked exasperated.  "You seriously didn't…"

"Sorry Jamsie old boy, but I did," Sirius replied, slapping his father on the back.  "Owls are damn useful, you know that.  Besides, he might want to write during his time at Hogwarts."

"At what?" Harry looked confused.

His father was about to reply when there was a knocking on the window and all heads turned to see an owl carrying a letter pecking at the window.  Harry wasn't really used to owls bringing letters, but he was used to it enough that he knew that it was a wizarding thing.

Colin was the closest to the window and opened it for the owl to get through.  Immediately the tawny owl flew towards them and suddenly dropped the letter it had into Harry's lap.  The owl swooped around and gave a little screech before flying off into the night.  Colin closed the window once more, but Harry was too busy staring at the scrawling handwriting that said:

            To: Mr. Harry James Potter

            Living Room

            9 Godric's Hollow

            Wales

He flipped it over and looked at the back.  There was a wax seal with the crest that had a badger, snake, lion, and raven engraved in it.  He opened it, not really noticing how quiet the room had gotten.  Inside was a letter with the same scrawling hand writing.

"Dear Mr. Potter.  You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…" Harry trailed off then glanced up at his parents and everyone in the room.  He finally noticed that all of them were beaming down at him and his parents had very broad grins on their faces.

"Hogwarts…I'm going to learn magic?!" he asked, not too sure.

"Yes," his mom replied and before he could do anything else, she swept him into a furious embrace.  The whole room burst out in applause and Harry could feel himself redden with embarrassment.

"Aww…mom," he muttered as she released him, but redden even further as his dad hugged him from behind.  "Dad…"

"Congratulations Harry, and before we forget, here is our present," his dad replied and handed him an oddly shaped brown-wrapped gift that reminded Harry of a broom.

He opened it and then stared.  Barely hearing the intakes of a few gasps from the guests, he could only stare at the beautiful shiny broom he had.  He knew what this was…this was a broom…  The same brooms he had seen in the Quidditch World Cups he had gone to when he was younger.  Except this was…

"That's the new Nimbus 2000," Peter gasped, "Holy…"

"Wow…" Remus stared at the broom.

"Can I try it right now?  Can I fly it?" Harry asked, looking at his mom and dad.

"Not now…but later this week.  Tomorrow we're going to get your supplies for school.  Remus, can you tell Dumbledore that Harry's accepted?" his dad turned towards his uncle and Harry frowned a bit puzzled.

He glanced down at the letter in his hand and then glanced at the book his Uncle had given him.  Putting two and two together he realized, "Are you one of my teachers?" he asked Remus.

"Clever, better than your father, I'd say," Remus replied before ducking underneath an attempt by James to whack him.  "And yes, I'll tell Dumbledore."

"Cool!" Harry grinned.  He was going to have one of his Uncles as a teacher!  He was going to learn magic!

For his first wizard birthday, Harry Potter was very glad that it was a great one.

                                    *                      *                      *

Later that night, when all of the guests had left, some Apparating to different places, other leaving by Muggle means, Lily and James still stayed up, cleaning up.  They had sent Harry up to bed, noting that he was tired from the day's activities.

Now, Lily was cleaning the dishes, not by magic, but by Muggle means.  James cleared up the plates and tied the garbage bag securely.  He was about to bring it to their garage when a sudden impulse overtook him and he reached out and wrapped his arms around his wife, resting his chin on her shoulder as she worked.

"Hey beautiful," he greeted.

"Hey handsome," she replied, laughing lightly.  "You finished?"

"Just about," he replied, breathing in her scent, which naturally smelled of her namesake.  He leaned his cheek into her wavy red hair and grinned.  "You feeling all right?"

"Just tired, that's all…you know, from today," Lily replied, turning her head slightly as she dried off another plate.

"Are you sure?" James could sense that his wife wasn't too well, "did you use any magic?"

"No…not really," Lily replied but James could tell she was hiding something.

"Lily…"

"I only used it once, just to help Harry clean up from his Muggle party," Lily finally gave in as she dried a cup and set it gently on the drying rack.

"Lily," James sighed into her hair, "you shouldn't use magic, you know.  You know what might happen, you know the consequences.  I…don't want to lose you."  James stared at his wife's hands washing a few bowls, but he was angry on the inside.  He hated Voldemort for what he did to Lily.  He hated himself for being unable to prevent what happened.

"Don't worry about me, love," Lily reached out a soapy hand and covered his, "I'll be fine.  It's only a sporadic use of magic.  It won't hurt me," she turned to him and though her soapy hands covered his, James could see fire in her emerald eyes.  Those eyes and face that had caught him since his first year at Hogwarts.  Her knowledge had entranced him.  Her fiery personality that had given him realization that he was such an ass in Fifth Year.

She was his life…and he was determined to protect her to the end.

"I know…" he replied softly before leaning down and kissing her gently.  They stayed that way for a long time.

                                    *                      *                      *

**Author's Notes:**

            I am going to incorporate a few aspects of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone into this fic.  But I'll twist it to my own purposes.  ^_^  Enjoy!  I'd like to thank all those that reviewed.  Next chapter I'll be naming each one of you individually.


	6. Diagon Alley

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters associated with the books do not belong to me.  They belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.  I own my own original characters.  Please ask if you would like to use them.  And yes, I am a "small-minded yank!" as one reviewer so kindly put.  But this "small-minded yank" is proud of her Chinese-American heritage.  ^_^  Keep reviewing peoples!

_Chapter 4 – Diagon Alley_

When Harry awoke the next morning, he couldn't really place the giddy feeling he had in his stomach until he remembered what happened last night.  Last night was his 11th birthday and he had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  A real wizarding school and he didn't have to go to a Muggle school anymore.  He would be able to learn magic, just like his parents!

He quickly changed and rushed downstairs.  Bursting into the kitchen, he nearly knocked over his dad carrying a plate of waffles to the dining table.

"Hey Harry, slow down," his dad laughed and Harry grinned before sitting himself at his usual spot.

"Morning mom, dad, can we go now?" he asked, as he took a few waffles and bacon onto his plate and started to shove them down his throat.  He wanted to go now!  He didn't really want to stay and eat…

"Harry, you'll choke yourself.  Slow down, we're not even dressed to go," his mother replied, but she smiled at him, "I understand that it's your first time and you were just like me when I was your age, but don't worry, Diagon Alley won't disappear while we're here."

Forcing himself to slow down and chew his food, Harry started to feel restless.  There were times where his parents just ate so slowly…he wondered if it was deliberate.  Shifting slightly in his seat, he rubbed one of the chair's legs with his feet in impatience trying hard not to throw up his hands and yell at his parents to finish faster.

Apparently, his mother caught his nervous gestures and reached out a hand and placed it over his.  "Harry…stop it.  Fidgeting around isn't going to do you any good.  Since you're done, why don't you put your plates in the sink and go on upstairs.  You can go look at your presents and we'll tell you when we're ready, okay?"

"Okay," he all but chirped in his still nervous state and got up, bringing his dishes with him and dumped it in the sink where soap and water started pouring out from the sink and a cleaning sponge started scrubbing the dishes clean all by its self.  Harry blinked and watched the dishes self-clean – this had to be magic…he hadn't seen something like this happen before.  He had always seen his mother clean the dishes by hand…this…this was…

"Cool!" he half-shouted as he tilted his head, fascinated.

Back in the dining room, James rolled his eyes at his wife who only smirked at him.  "You grew up as a wizard, James…just leave Harry alone," Lily admonished her husband who shook his head once more and finished off the last bites of his waffle.

"Well, it's partially your fault for keeping nearly all magic off limits in this house-hold," he said in between mouthfuls of waffle.

"Ew, James, grow up!" Lily wrinkled her face in disgust, but managed to keep a smile on her face.

James crossed his eyes in a childish response before swallowing.

"I swear, both you and Harry are children and I'm the only sane adult around here!" Lily took a sip of her cranberry juice.

"Sorry, Lily, never hit that age where we had to mature," James smiled before downing the rest of the milk he had poured for himself.

"Whatever," Lily also finished the rest of her breakfast before the two got up and cleaned up the dining table.  "Let's go, before Harry starts to run around in boredom."

                                    *                      *                      *

Harry watched the familiar scenery of countryside and cityscape pass by as his mother drove them from their home to London.  She weaved around the traffic like an expert in their small car, shifting gears without a second thought.  He knew that his dad wasn't that great with driving cars, especially sticks, and had a tendency to drive into people or sidewalks, or even ditches as he was too focused on looking at the scenery instead of driving.

Soon, his mother found a neat little space for them to fit their car into and they got out.  As soon as she locked the car, she took out her wand and Harry watched as she chanted something under her breath and touched the tip of her wand to the car.  An electric tingle ran through the air and Harry looked at her confused.

"No clamps are going to be fitted on my wheels," his mother said and Harry nodded.  He had heard on the news that illegal clampers were being placed on cars by people who wanted to make some quick cash – it was rather annoying as Harry knew that some of his neighbors and friends' parents were duped into the scams once or twice when they went into London or other cities.

"Come on, this way," his father put an arm around him and guided him across the street to a rickety looking building with peeling paint and general decrepit-looking door.  Harry looked at it, uncertain and as his father opened the door and stepped in, he hesitated for a second before his father glanced back and nodded in reassurance.

Odors and smoke of different kinds assaulted his senses as he coughed slightly then blinked to clear his watering eyes.  The place was dimly lit…and he could see why.  There were no modern lighting and everything was by candlelight or oil lamps.  It was quite shabby looking and the pub's patrons looked unsavory.  If it wasn't for the reassurance of his father next to him or his mother behind him, Harry knew he would have bolted.  These were the pubs his school teachers had told him about to stay away from when they were learning about safety in the cities.

"Hey James!  And Miz Lily!  Fancy seeing you here on this day!" the bartender, a old wizened man polishing a glass spoke, giving his parents an easy smile before his eyes slid down to Harry.

Harry immediately felt shy as he watched the man's eyes widened in surprise.  "Bless my soul, is that Harry, James?"

The pub immediately felt silent and Harry felt all eyes on him and he shrank back slightly, embarrassed and nervous all of the sudden.

"It's Harry Potter…"

"The Harry Potter-

"-Looks exactly like his father-"

"-No got his mum's eyes-"

"Glad to meet you Harry; Doris Crockford at your service," an old lady dressed in weird looking robes that was a clash of color against her graying hair suddenly shook his hand before others began to crowd around him, shaking his hand and murmuring welcoming praises.

Harry was suddenly filled with a sense of panic and wanted to bolt out of there.  He looked around for his parents, but all that surrounded him was unfamiliar faces, some old, some young, but all dressed in robes of different colors.  Just as he was going to yell for his parents, a sturdy hand grasped onto his shoulder and propelled him through the throng of people that had surrounded him.

"Sorry, lots to do, be seeing you later," his father's strong voice said above him as he was pushed all the way to the other side of the tavern and out another door.

Sunlight beamed down at him and he realized that they were in a small walled courtyard.  His dad let him go and Harry glanced up at his parents, and was surprised to see an irked expression on his father's face while his mother was smoothing her robes and adjusting her hair – it looked like she got rumpled in the crowd that had sudden surrounded Harry.

"Mum, dad?" Harry's head was swimming.

"Sorry about that, Harry," his father apologized, kneeling down to his eye level and looking at him, a comforting arm around him.  "It's just that wizarding people know you-"

"Why?"

His father's face darkened slightly and he heard a stifle of a noise from his mother and looked at the two in confusion.  "I…can't really explain at the moment, Harry," his father finally replied, "but…you're famous in the wizarding world because of your scar.  It's something you'll find out when you're older, okay?"

There was something about his father's tone that told him he shouldn't ask more questions concerning what happened in the tavern, but one question still niggled at him.  "Dad...were all those people wizards?"

James' expression lightened and he grinned.  "Yeah…a good lot of them.  They're mostly regulars at the Leaky Cauldron and I know most of them.  Not all wizards nor witches look like your Uncle Sirius or the others.  In fact there are hags, vampires, werewolves…"

Harry would have been fascinated by what his father was rattling on about magical creatures if for not the fact that he noticed that his mother had drew out her wand, a spindly stick that a light yellow-grey color, it looked like a small branch from a willow tree and was examining the brick wall that was in front of them.

He watched as she suddenly tapped a particular spot three times…then his jaw dropped to the ground in amazement.  From where his mother touched the brick, a hole appeared and was expanding larger and larger by the second.  Apparently his father noticed too as he trailed off on talking about mer-people and a giant squid and instead was giving a lopsided smile to the expanding hole.

A few seconds later the hole turned into an archway and Harry felt his father's hand on his shoulder.  "Welcome, Harry, to Diagon Alley."

They stepped through and Harry craned his neck around, staring in wonderment at everything that was around him.  So many shops – so many colors!  There were animals in cages, witches with crooked hats buying what looked to be shriveled up livers and spleens…potions of varying color, some with warning labels…

"Look!  The Nimbus Two-Thousand!"

"The fastest thing in the world!"

Harry's eyes darted to where he saw a group of kids of various ages, even some adults, staring at the window which held the broom he had gotten yesterday for his birthday present.  Harry felt himself flush a little before he turned his gaze away to a sign that said Apothecary.

"Come on Harry, this way," his parents called from a bit of ways ahead of him and Harry scrambled through the crowd, realizing that he had been left behind while his parents had gone ahead.

He pushed through a few witches and wizards, murmuring hasty apologies before he stopped in his tracks and looked up…at a fairly tall white building that was guarded by what looked to be two huge, ugly, and scary looking-

"Trolls, just don't mind them, Harry," his mother took him by his hand and led him past the gigantic trolls and into the building.

A great expanse greeted him and also with the sounds of transactions…it was a bank, his mind put two and two together…but…what are those creatures doing the transactions?

"Mum?  What are they?" he whispered, perhaps a bit too loudly as he caught one of the creatures in the midst of stamping a checkbook glaring at him with its beady little eyes, its sharp pointy teeth bared slightly.

"Goblins, Harry.  Don't mind them, they're not the nicest of all creatures, but they're quite protective of your money."

"Money?  But I thought we had a bank account already, you know…the one where Mrs. Honeysprout gives me lollipops each time I go with you to the bank?" Harry was confused.

His mother smiled, "Yes, we have that one, but that's Muggle money.  Wizards have their own money too."

"Oh…" Harry fell silent as a giant man approached them.  He was wearing a moleskin patched coat and his face was almost completely hidden by a mane of black hair.  He could only make out two beetle-black eyes that glittered with kindness.

"James!  Lily!" the man voice boomed at them and Harry blinked as he saw the giant of a man pick his father up in a bear hug, completely sweeping him off his feet for a few seconds before putting him back down.  The man gently lifted his mother's hand and kissed the back of it to which Harry saw her giggle and blush slightly before he let go.

"Hey Hagrid," James replied, looking a bit out of breath and was trying to adjust his glasses back onto his nose, "fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah, well, I'm getting somethin' fer Professor Dumbledore," the giant man, Hagrid, said patting his coat pocket.  "School stuff."

"Oh," James replied, "anything to do with the Ministry?"

"Nah," Hagrid shook his head before his eyes focused down on Harry who immediately shrank back, trying to hide behind his mother.  "'Ey…this now isn't Harry, is it?"

"Harry," his mother gently propelled him forward, "this is Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts."

Harry reluctantly stuck out his hand and Hagrid's big ones engulfed it as he shook hands.  "Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts…nice meeting you."  As they shook hands, Harry felt a sense of familiarity towards Hagrid…and he couldn't quite place it, but he felt as if Hagrid had been a friend for a long time – perhaps in another lifetime, he supposed to himself.

"Here to buy Harry his school supplies?" Hagrid stepped back and looked at all of them.

James nodded, "Just going to show him his vault and then we're off."

"Okay," Hagrid nodded then waved to them, "I'll be seeing yeh later!  Harry, see yeh at Hogwarts!"  With that the giant man thumped out of Gringotts, leaving the Potters alone.

"Well, come on, let's get your money," James said.  Harry nodded, still feeling overwhelmed yet calm at the same time.  He noticed that his father's fingers were moving something underneath his robe and wondered what it was, but didn't get a chance to ask as his mother beckoned to him to follow.

                                    *                      *                      *

Half-hour later and a dizzying ride through the winding tunnels underneath Gringotts – to which Harry swore he saw a dragon breathing fire in one of the passage ways – Harry's pockets were bulging with gold Galleons, silver Sickles, and bronze Knuts.  He remembered what his mother told him of each conversion, but it was stuck in the far recesses of his mind as his father first took them to Madam Malkin's Robes of All Occasions.

There, Madam Malkin, a squat witch dressed in mauve, flitted around him, her tape measurer moving all by itself as she waved her wand; immediately five new black robes sewed themselves together.  Harry thanked her and paid for the robes by himself, feeling a bit adult-ish now that he had money and was able to pay for things himself.

Once they were outside the shop, his mother took him to the Apothecary to buy him a cauldron as it said so on his Hogwarts letter, while his father carried the packages of robes.  Inside the Apothecary, Harry wanted to buy a solid gold cauldron, but his mother told him to stick to what was on his letter.

"All right, all right…pewter cauldron," he groused as he also got a set of nice bronze scales and a collapsible brass telescope.  His mother helped him pick out the ingredients he needed for the year and when they went to pay, everything was dumped into the cauldron, to Harry's surprise, and everything fit.  He peeked into the cauldron as his mother chatted with the shopkeeper, only listening occasionally as the shopkeeper mentioned she was one of the finest potions students at Hogwarts and also one of the brightest at charm work.

How everything fit in, he wondered, but just then his mother tugged at his shirt and he reluctantly gave up trying to figure out the cauldron and followed her outside.  Once outside, his father dumped all of the packages that held his robes into his cauldron and Harry's eyes widened to saucers as he saw that even those packages fit in…

"Cauldrons are usually expandable," his mother finally saw his confused and surprised expression, "it's really useful, especially the charm that goes to making a cauldron."

"O-Okay…" Harry was still shocked, but followed his parents to the next shop, Flourish and Blotts.  Inside, the smell of old worn books assaulted him and he looked around, craning his head so much that it started to hurt to look at all the books that was around him.  A few were flying around by their pages while others tried to bite and rip others apart.

Suddenly, a book caught his eye and he approached it; _Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More)_ by Professor Vindictus Viridian.  A smile started to quirk on his face as he wanted to get his hands on it and start to read…it would be funny to pull a few pranks on some of his Muggle friends…and maybe on his Uncles as they seemed like the ones to pull of pranks themselves.

"No," a resolute voice said behind him and he turned to see his mother give him a stern shake of her head, her green eyes glittering.

"But Mum…" Harry pleaded with her.

"No, Harry, there are one too many pranksters in this house," Lily said then turned her gaze farther to Harry's left, "don't you even think about buying it, James."

Harry spun around just in time to see his father stick his tongue childishly out at Lily before sighing and walking up to the bookshop owner and handing him Harry's Hogwarts letter with the book list on it.

That was odd…Harry thought, he never would have guessed that his stern father would have the gall to pull pranks…nor look so childishly at his age.  Soon his father returned with his books and dumped them into his cauldron, to which Harry finally noticed wasn't getting heavier and instead still felt the same as when he brought it.

"All right, where to next?"

Harry was about to reply to his father's question that he still needed a wand when raised voices were heard outside and he saw his father look up to the ceiling mutter something before turning to them.  "Lily, take Harry to buy his wand, I'll join you later…"

"It's them again, isn't it?"

"Always," his father sounded weary and gave a half-smile at them before stepping out of the shop.

"Come on Harry, let's go to Ollivanders," his mother took him by his hand and led him out of Flourish and Blotts.

                                    *                      *                      *

James found the commotion between the two in the alleyway next to Flourish and Blotts and promptly waved his wand, causing red sparks to jump out at the two fighting and startling them into silence.

"Arthur…Lucius…" he greeted them flatly.  "Why do I always see you fighting…if not in the office, but even here in public?"

"I think an alleyway is not too public, Potter," Lucius sneered and James suppressed the anger to throttle the older man, not by much, but still older, into the wall.

"Whatever," he settled for the reply, "but I think that these disturbances are getting far too common.  If you won't deal with them on your own, then the Aurors will have to put a restraining order on both – including use of spells and charms if we have to."

"Fine," Lucius bristled at the statement but agreed, "just so you know, it was Weasley who started it."

"How dare you-"

"Shut up!" James yelled at the two, "Lucius, leave, now.  Arthur, stay.  You and I are going to have a chat.  Lucius, remember my warning."

The elder Malfoy only glowered at him malevolently before turning on his heel, his robes flaring out and walking away, his hand gripping his expensive walking stick.  As soon as he was out of earshot, by James' standards, which was out into the main street and out of his sight, he turned to Arthur who face had been beet red, but was now turning back to his regular color.

"Thanks James," Arthur began but James shut him up with a stare.

"What were you thinking?  Why of all the times do you and Lucius always have to bicker?  It's like watching two children constantly fight," James threw up his hands in exasperation.  "I know that Lucius gets on your nerves, hell he gets on everyone's nerves, but with each encounter, you're to the breaking point Arthur."

"I'm not going to spill Order secrets," Arthur frowned at him and James nodded.

"I know, but if _he's_ still out there and Malfoy is still _one of them_, then you'd be his primary target.  I don't want to see your family hurt in the near future."

"All right, James," Arthur said, "but it's still his fault."

"Arthur, isn't it always the Slytherins?" he clapped his colleague on his back before the two walked out of the alleyway and back into the streets of Diagon Alley.

James only looked back for a second as he felt something evil behind them, but he saw nothing.

                                    *                      *                      *

Meanwhile, Harry entered Ollivanders alone.  His mother had taken the gift certificate his Uncle Sirius had given to him and went to Eeylops Owl Emporium to pick up Hedwig.

 The shop smelled old and musty and felt like a library where if someone made even one sound, they would be thrown out.  "Um…h-hello?" Harry asked tentatively into the silent air.

"Good afternoon," a soft voice replied behind him and Harry jumped slightly before turning around to see an old man with pale moon-like eyes hiding behind his small silver spectacles.  "I was wondering when you would be arriving Harry Potter…"

Then man stepped around him and held out a tape measurer, "Please hold out your wand arm."

"My what?"

"What hand do you write with?" Ollivander, Harry could see a small nametag on his brown vest, said, a tad bit impatient.

"My right," Harry said and stuck out his right arm.

Ollivander quickly measured it before he went behind the counter and disappeared behind a few shelves.  "It only seemed like yesterday when your mother and father were in here for their first wands," Ollivander's voice floated from the back, strong as ever.  "The wand chooses its master and your mother's wand was perfect for charm work, ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow and a unicorn tail core.  Your father, always the transfiguration expert, mahogany, eleven inches, pliable, a rare core griffin tail."

"Why?" Harry asked as he saw Ollivander come back to the counter with a few long boxes in his arms and place them on the counter.

"We commonly use unicorn tails, phoenix feathers, and dragon heartstrings for wands.  Sometimes, and very rarely, do we use other magical creatures for wands because they have a tendency to be unstable and the user must be real competent to wield their wand.  Fortunately, for your father, he was able to control his tempestuous wand," Ollivander peered at him through his silver spectacles before opening a box and handing him a wand.

"Beech wood and dragon heartstring.  Nine inches.  Nice and flexible," Harry heard Ollivander say but then just as suddenly, he took the wand out of his hand, muttering that it wasn't right.

"Try this one, ebony and unicorn hair.  Springy with eight and a half inches to it- no, no…"

"Ah…holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

As soon as the wand touched Harry's hand, he felt something pass through him, a wave of sadness…giddiness…like there was a parallel life he used to live with the wand…but…

"No, no…close, but not perfect," Ollivander took the wand out of his hand and the connection broke.  He winced slightly as his scar gave a twinge of pain and wondered what that was all about.  There was something about the wand, as if it had been meant for another life…

"Here…willow and phoenix feather, eleven and a half inches, sturdy and strong," Ollivander handed him another wand and Harry touched it…and immediately felt a connection to it.

This had to be his wand…it had to be!  He stared at it, feeling its magical power rush through him, giving him new life…

"Yes…yes…curious though…very curious," Ollivander muttered quietly and Harry glanced at the old man.

"Curious?"

"I remembered every wand I sold, Mr. Potter…and it just so happened that this core of this wand, the phoenix who gave its feather, gave two others, making it three brothers.  One of them was in the wand I had sold to the Dark Lord himself – the one who gave you that scar…"

"My scar?" Harry unconsciously brushed his lightning bolt scar…his parents never mentioned anything about a Dark Lord that gave him this scar.

"Yes…" Ollivander hissed, "but you must know…the one who gave you that scar, did great things, terrible, but great…and now you have that power that he also wielded…be wise Mr. Potter, for the path is yet to be determined by you.

"Will you follow his path?"

                                    *                      *                      *

**Author's Notes:**

            I'd like to apologize for not updating this fic in such a long while.  I've been extremely busy with schoolwork and other projects.  As such, here's the list of reviewers I'd like to thank so far!

Evanjaleene, JoBob1379, sexiglassesSNOG, Bubblelicous*Bubblegum, Jade Jaganashi, athenakitty, uNoeWho, Ganymade, Ayla Lupin, Mella deranged, pheonixrising1, CelticGirl264, tantomon, CapriceAnn Hedican-Kour, Nerwen Felagund, Brie Cheese Eater, SpellWowbackward, Pestilence GH, Cataclysmic, Shadow, Sarah L. Padfoot, vamperfly, Rabia Shahid Ali, jazzie-tin, Athena Lune de Etoile, Nurriel Evenstar, Egleriel, coconut-ice agent h/h, Doctor Zosfmov, LM C, Jenstarz, KingdredSword, sailor Shinigami puffenstuff, Sailor Centauri1, Yukirei, star-prancer, Padfoot79, Elven Warrior1…

Thanks guys!  Keep reading!


	7. The Dark Lord and the Scar

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters associated with the books do not belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own my own original characters. Please ask if you would like to use them.

_Chapter 5 - The Dark Lord and the Scar_

Over the next couple of weeks before the start of the school term, Harry was quiet for the most part, something unusual his parents thought. They tried asking him, but all he said was that he was fine.

Harry sat in his room, stroking Hedwig's feathers while she napped in her cage, occasionally ruffling her feathers and opening a golden yellow eye to stare at him before closing it and going back to sleep. He wanted to know who was this Dark Lord Ollivander had talked about and in what relation was his scar to this person? He wanted to know why was he famous? Why did those people at the Leaky Cauldron stare at him like he was something to behold, a miracle of sorts?

What happened to him to make him so famous?

But he was afraid of asking his parents, as each time they refused to answer and told him that he would be told when he was older…

"Hedwig…should I ask them now?" he whispered to his owl who opened up one golden eye and hooted softly before closing it and going back to sleep. Sighing, Harry stopped stroking his bird and instead began to tap his wand gently on his desk, the side of his head resting on his forearm as he watched, slightly cross-eyed, at his wand making little red sparks each time it hit the surface of his desk.

He had attempted to cast a few spells he had read in his book _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_, but that had resulted in a few things breaking or not even doing anything. Once he had created a small burst of flames that he quickly put out by grabbing water from the bathroom, which was across his room. One of the legs of his four-poster bed still had the burnt marks that he carefully hid with his blankets whenever his mother or father came into the room.

But at the moment he was bored…he had tried reading a few of his textbooks, especially _A History of Magic_, but it seemed so dull, that it nearly sent him off on a few naps during the days he tried to read it.

The term would be starting in about a week and half…and finally he would be able to meet wizards like him…

A sudden panicking thought caught in his throat and he abruptly stopped his tapping and sat up. He quickly dashed downstairs where he knew his mother would be in the midst of preparing dinner.

* * *

"Mum!"

Lily was in the midst of cutting up carrots when she looked up to see Harry burst into the kitchen, out of breath and holding his wand. For a heartbeat, she thought that there had been an attack on her son, Voldemort had returned…but then with her trained eye she noticed that he was completely fine, only a bit worried about something.

"Yes?" she answered, putting the newly chopped carrots into a pot then starting on celery.

"What if I don't know any magic? What if the others laugh at me?" Harry asked, his eyes full of worry.

Lily smiled down at her son…she had faced the same thing when Professor McGonagall told her that she had been accepted to Hogwarts and was a witch. Had it been that long…yes, it had… "Don't worry…there are other Muggle-born kids who haven't even studied magic. Even wizard-born children don't know too much magic as they go to school like you do, learning the basics of both the Muggle and wizard world."

"Oh…okay," Harry looked a bit unconvinced but he nodded in relief.

Lily knew that sanctions against Muggle-borns had been put into place after Voldemort's fall, all because of Fudge and Malfoy's work at the Ministry of Magic. Fudge was always dimwitted, in Lily's opinion, and always followed the stupid discriminatory advice of his Deputy Minister, Lucius Malfoy. It was those sanctions that had prevented her from getting a job within some branches of the Ministry, leaving her to finally get a part-time Muggle job at the BBC.

This also meant that the number of Muggle-born children coming into Hogwarts was going to be limited. Even if Dumbledore let everyone in, she knew that he would have to answer to Fudge. The question was, why didn't Dumbledore take the position of Minister of Magic when he had the chance?

She thought it was probably partially because of the former Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts' death. Minerva McGonagall…Lily loved her transfiguration teacher and was extremely saddened when she died during Voldemort's attacks on Hogwarts itself (which turned out to be failures at the end). She figured that Dumbledore wanted to stay for the safety of the children and for McGonagall's memory.

"Hey mum?"

"Yes Harry?" Lily finished the celery and dumped them into the pot. She was going to make a stew tonight.

"You know when dad told me that I got this scar from a dark wizard when I was young…well, was that dark wizard a Dark Lord? Is that why I'm famous?"

Lily felt the blade of her chef's knife slip and she pulled her hand back in time to prevent it from being chopped. Setting her knife down onto the cutting board, she sighed before wiping her hands clean. Turning on the stove, she set it to medium heating before turning around and facing her son.

"Harry, please come with me," she said, gesturing for him to follow her into the living room. She waved for him to sit down on the couch while she went to a shelf and pulled out a worn book that had seen better days. Books well read were always worn, in her opinion, and she cherished this particular one greatly. It was her personal copy of _A History of Magic_ and each time new information was penned down in every edition, those previous would be updated magically.

"What's that mum?" Harry asked as she sat down next to him, placing the book on her lap. "_A History of Magic_…Mum, is that like some kind of social studies book for the magical world?"

Lily smiled slightly and nodded, "Yes Harry. This is an old copy of mine that I got when I first started Hogwarts. It contains almost everything anyone who was Muggle-born or don't really know their history too well, about the Wizarding World."

"But, I don't really like history…" Harry looked a bit put off by the thickness of the book.

"Don't worry Harry," she ruffled her son's hair then sighed deeply before meeting Harry's gaze. "Harry…what I am about to tell you, your father does not approve and thinks you should be older before you learn all of this. But, sometimes James can be a bit too stubborn for his own good. I want you to know this, so you can at least enter Hogwarts before you are overwhelmed by questions."

"Questions? Like why I'm famous and that stuff?" Harry asked and she nodded.

"Yes," Lily closed her eyes for a second and hoped to whatever gods existed in this world that she was doing the right thing. She knew that James would eventually find out, after all, she would tell him later on when he returned, but Harry had to know at least something before every child out there bombarded him with questions. Inwardly, she was afraid for her only child…and the doctors had said that she could not bear to have another due to her condition.

To send Harry out into such a vicious world…both in the Wizarding and Muggle sense…

"During the 1970s, when your father and I were at Hogwarts, a great darkness and evil was amassing power…"

* * *

It was only about an hour later, but Harry felt as if it was at least a lifetime. He laid on his bed, his hands folded with his chin resting on the back of them, staring at his walls which held pictures of his favorite sports teams and other things.

He knew that his mother held some things back, but the general gist of it was that a Dark Lord had come after his family because his mother and father were very famous and to take them out would be a huge blow to the wizarding community – but Harry sensed that that was only a cover story. His mother and father ran, but the Dark Lord's henchmen trapped them and the Dark Lord himself tried to kill him, but somehow, wasn't able to as his killing spell backfired on him.

That was how he got the scar… He had felt a twinge of pain when his mother mentioned the killing curse and he remembered faintly, something about a green flash of light…but…everything else was all fuzzy.

He was famous in the Wizarding world because he was The-Boy-Who-Lived; the only one to survive the killing curse that the Dark Lord threw at him. When he asked his mother about the Dark Lord's name she told him it was Voldemort, but warned him not to say it around wizards or mention it, as many were still skittish and scared. Harry had found that to be slightly absurd as his grammar school teacher had mentioned the names of great evil Muggles without so much as a flinch – no one really feared the evil Muggles that had plagued the world with wars so why should a wizard be feared? But he would heed his mother's orders.

A picture of United Puddlemere, moving by magic, was over his bed – his dad's favorite team. He didn't really follow Quidditch too much, and wasn't really well versed with the rules, but that was because his mother didn't allow his father to tell him anything about Quidditch. Maybe when he went to Hogwarts, he would be able to ask some of the students what Quidditch was…

Maybe also ask a bit more of what happened during Lord Voldemort's reign. He had saw a copy of his mother's book, _A History of Magic_, for sale in the bookshop, but his mother said that he only needed the books he needed for school. All other books he could find in Hogwarts' library. As one of the people in the Puddlemere poster suddenly did a flip on his broom, Harry heard his mother call up to him that dinner was ready.

Which also meant his father was home. Getting up, Harry brushed the wrinkles out of his shirt and stretched, feeling a few of his vertebrae pop back into place after lying on his stomach for so long. He left his room and headed downstairs to the dining room.

When he got there, he saw that his father was reading the Muggle paper _The Guardian_, to which he knew they had a subscription to. His expression was blank and Harry glanced at his mother who was setting out the plates before going back into the kitchen and bringing out a stew. She looked quiet…which meant tensions were high – and that his father wasn't happy… It either meant that he had a bad day at work, or that his mother told him about what had happened an hour ago.

He didn't ask as he took his seat and started to help himself to some of the stew his mother had cooked. Better to be quiet now than to be punished for speaking out…

The silence, broken by the tinkering of utensils, stretched longer and longer, until Harry couldn't take it anymore. "So," he started, noting that both his of his parents jumped slightly, "how was work, dad?"

"Fine," his dad didn't look at him and continued to thumb through the paper while eating.

"Anything interesting?"

"No," his dad replied.

Harry found this odd, as he knew that his dad usually answered him with some funny story about Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley getting into a fight again, or maybe a prank about the Aurors he worked with – but this meant that his father was in a bad mood.

"Did Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy get into a fight again?" he pressed, hoping to break the ice.

"Yes," was the short reply.

Harry waited for his father to elaborate, but when it became apparent that his father wasn't going to tell, he opened his mouth again to speak when his mother touched his shoulder and he turned to see her shaking her head.

"Harry, finish up your dinner and then go to your room, all right?" his mother asked quietly and Harry nodded, quickly finishing up his dinner and gathering his plate and utensils together. He pushed back his chair and took his plate to the kitchen and dumped it into the sink. Rinsing off his hands, he wiped it on a towel before leaving the kitchen.

As he was half way up the stairs to his room, a sudden impulse overtook him and he crept back downstairs to try to hear what his parents were saying. He slid up against the living room wall before the kitchen and tried to listen-

"Harry, you're not in your room," his father suddenly said and Harry blinked before he frowned in disappointment. Trust your father to be an Auror… He sighed and walked back up the stairs dejectedly. He wished he had something to spy on his parents, to actually hear what they were saying…but none of his spells in his books told of such a thing… Was it an advance spell then? He wished he knew of someway to overhear conversations…

Closing the door to his room, Harry went and sat by his desk. Hedwig hooted softly by her cage while preening her feathers and he reached between the bars to stroke her. She stopped her preening and nibbled his fingers affectionately before giving a slight flutter and going back to preening herself.

Only a week and half before term started…

* * *

Lily heard the door to Harry's room close and stared at James who had gone back to his paper. She knew that he wasn't really reading it, he almost never read Muggle papers as he barely understood the politics that were in it like she did. Her work as a freelance journalist was published in _The Guardian_, but that a weekly thing.

James finally folded up the paper and set it next to his plate before he looked up and stared at her across the table. She didn't flinch from his angry gaze; she was too trained as a former Auror to flinch away from anything.

"Why did you do it Lily?" James asked in a simple voice.

"Because he has the right to know. He's going to school-"

"Lily, he's only eleven for crying out loud!" James suddenly slammed a hand down on the table, making the plates and utensils jump slightly.

"He's old enough to know!" Lily shouted back, her hands gripping her napkin tightly.

"No he isn't!" James growled and Lily narrowed her eyes.

"Then when is he?" she asked, seething. James was such a pigheaded man at times!

"When's he's old enough," James replied.

"Bull," Lily swore, something she rarely did, "that's circular reasoning James, and you know it as well as I do! Harry needs to know at least something of what happened to him _that night_! And for him to do so without having so many children bombard him with questions!"

"He shouldn't-"

"James, listen! He's entering into the Wizarding world, our world, in a week and half. How the hell do you think he'll feel if he finds out from his friends and other children that he got his scar and that he's famous because of Voldemort's atrocities against him?"

"You-"

"Shut up and listen for once James! God you're too stubborn for your own good," Lily cut him off viciously, half rising out of her seat, "He'll be feeling betrayed, that's why! How the hell do you think you felt when you found out about your lineage?! Your parents didn't tell you, so, how did you feel?"

"I was glad that they didn't tell," James's eyes darkened with anger as he also half rose out of his seat. "I was glad that I didn't find out until the very end. It saved me a lot of trouble."

"Ha! Yeah right," Lily shot back, "James, you were distraught. I was there, remember?! Don't deny it—you try to put up so much courage, which is why you were so let down! Harry needs to know at least some things about what happened before he feels the same too."

"Harry needs to be protected!"

"From what?! Voldemort?!"

"Yes!"

"James, Voldemort is dead! His followers are scattered! There is no way-"

"No body, no evidence. I don't believe he's dead," James replied, crossing his arms across his chest.

"And that's why you've been pulling so much time in the offices? Running some fool's errand?"

"That's low," James looked shocked.

"Just think about it," Lily stood up and grabbed her plate and fork and walked into the kitchen. She dumped her leftovers into the garbage and placed the plate in the sink none-to-gently before stalking upstairs. Moments later, the door to their bedroom slammed shut, leaving James alone in the quiet house.

* * *

Harry awoke the next morning to some shuffling noise and he bolted upright on his bed as he realized that his spell had activated. Last night, after he was sure he heard his father go to sleep, he had crept out of his room and casted a spell that would make their floorboards creak if anyone stepped on it.

He knew that his father always woke up before anyone else and it had to be him. Scrambling out of bed, Harry hit his shin on his chair and stifled a ouch of pain before he opened the door slightly and stuck his head out.

"Dad?" he asked and his father turned around, surprised before a half smile appeared on his face.

"So you're the one who casted the spell," his dad waved his wand at the stairs. "_Finite Incantatem_."

"Dad…um…did mum tell you?" Harry watched as a mix of emotions went through his father's face.

James sighed and climbed up the stairs and Harry opened his door further to let him in. He scrambled back onto his bed and pulled the covers over his legs as his dad sat on his desk's chair.

"Harry, how much do you know?" James asked in a sincere voice.

"Mum told me that a Dark Lord named Voldemort tried to kill us when I was only about a year old. She said that we were targeted because you and mum were famous and so to do so would give the Wizarding world a great blow if you and mum died. She also told me that Uncles Sirius, Remus, and Peter were set up to act like decoys to ward off the Dark Lord's people from finding out where we were. She told me that when we were caught, Voldemort tried to kill me, but somehow, I bounced his killing curse back at him and got this," he lifted up his unruly bangs and showed his father his lightning bolt scar.

James nodded, "No one knew…even your mother and I don't know how something like that happened."

Harry nodded before a question occurred to him. "Dad…did you and mum have a fight?"

James sighed, "Yeah. But your mum and I made up last night. Don't worry, Harry…I'm not angry at you or your mum. I was just worried, that's all…okay?"

"Okay," Harry was glad. He didn't like seeing his father angry – it was scary.

His father reached over and ruffled his hair and Harry tried to bat his hands away, but it was unsuccessful. "Awww…dad, stop it."

"Ha," his father grinned at him, "now, get back to sleep. You're up way too early."

"Hey dad…can I go to work with you?" Harry laid down on his bed and pulled his covers back up over him.

"Not now…maybe later today though. Dad's got a lot of work to do in the morning okay?"

"Wicked!" Harry grinned as his dad ruffled his hair once more before stepping out of his room, closing his door quietly. Harry smiled before he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

Outside of Harry's room, James saw Lily standing by their door, her arms folded across her dark jade green robe. Her hair was loose and wild and James smiled at her. Their tiff from last night was all but a forgotten memory as both apologized to each other before curling up against one another, falling asleep.

"When should I stop by?" Lily asked, brushing a lock of her long wavy red hair out of her eyes.

"I should have a majority of the Aurors out on missions by noon, so if you want to stop by in the afternoon, you're welcomed to. Moody isn't going to be sending me out today. It's not going to be rough today, unless some Muggle trips over something," James walked over and leaned in to kiss her gently on the lips before he straightened up.

"James, a Muggle always trips over some magical thing everyday. All right?" Lily replied with a mischievous look.

James shrugged, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll see you later, all right?"

"Bye, love," Lily waved as James headed down the stairs and out the door. There was a loud popping sound as she heard her husband Apparate to Auror headquarters.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

First off, let me apologize for not updating this fic for so long. I finished watching _Prisoner of Azkaban_ just this past weekend and it was great. So now my muses are semi-inspired to write in this fic. But I won't be able to post any chapters soon because I'm going on a week and half long vacation to Chicago-Indy-St. Louis. I'll be back in my own home June 22. Thank you for those of you still reading this fic!


	8. The Beginning of Friendship

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters associated with the books do not belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own my own original characters. Please ask if you would like to use them.

**Author's Notes:** This chapter may sound familiar as it is similar to Chapter 6 of the book, HP and the Sorcerer's Stone, but there are subtle differences, especially when Ron, Hermione, and Harry meet.

* * *

_Chapter 6 – The Beginning of Friendship_

Harry decided he hated Floo powder. It broke his glasses, though his mother repaired it with a simple "_Repairo!_" and he always sneezed at the copious amounts of dust that blew all over the place, covering his robes, hair, and face with soot. But other than the Floo powder, his trip to the Auror headquarters in London was fun. He was introduced to many aspects of the Wizarding government and even met some of his father's co-workers, including his Uncle Sirius. Though he shied away as people rushed up to greet him, he now knew why they did so, because he was The-Boy-Who-Lived.

But all in all, Harry found that the rest of the week and half had passed by quickly and now found himself standing in front of the train station in London, waiting as his parents locked up their car. Beside him, on a trolley was his luggage and Hedwig who was occasionally squawking in her cage.

Harry was a bit embarrassed as quite a few Muggles were staring at Hedwig, wondering what in the blazes was an owl doing locked up in a cage and not even sleeping at this time of the day. However, he took a cue from his parents and ignored the people after a while…

"Harry, come on," his mother placed her hand on his shoulder and pulled him along as his father took the trolley cart and they walked into King's Cross station. The bustle of usual morning traffic as people rushed onto trains and subways to get to work or were getting off of trains, raising their hands to hail taxies made for walking around together a bit hard.

Lily had long dropped her hand from Harry's shoulder, but Harry had grabbed onto her hand to try not to lose her in the station. He could barely make out his father, barreling his way through the crowd with the trolley in front of him like a battering ram. Finally his parents stopped in front of what Harry saw were platforms 9 and 10. He scratched his head, wondering why they stopped.

"Lily?" his father called back and Harry was pulled along side, barely squished by the crowds.

"All right now, Harry watch your father carefully…" his mother instructed and Harry nodded as he saw his mother give a nod to his father before he took the trolley and ran towards the brick barrier between platforms 9 and 10. He expected his father to rebound hard and have the trolley crash, but that wasn't the case as his eyes widened…his father disappeared straight through the barrier…oblivious to all the Muggles that were around him.

"Come on Harry, our turn," his mother said, snapping him out of his stupor.

"All…right," Harry said, uncertain.

Lily smiled before kneeling down to her son's eye level. "Listen Harry, its bewitched so that Muggles ignore it. Only those who have magical children or are wizards and squibs themselves can go through. If you want, you can close your eyes as we approach.

"S-Sure…" Harry nodded before he took his mother's hand and the two of them walked towards the barrier.

"Usually most do it at a run, but since this is your first time, we'll walk through," Lily smiled and Harry nodded sheepishly before he closed his eyes tight as they approached the barrier. He expected to slam into the wall, but seconds later, he blinked open his eyes and saw that they were on the other side of the barrier…

A sign hanging above him read Platform 9 ¾. In front of him and extending down to his right was the glistening scarlet shine of a steam engine, the Hogwarts Express…

"See…that wasn't so bad, was it Harry?" his mother asked and Harry nodded in agreement.

"Lily, over here!" James called and Harry turned to see his father farther down a ways, waiting for them with the trolley. Both he and his mother quickly walked to where his father was and James ruffled his hair to which Harry tried to bat his hands away but his father was too fast.

"Awww, Dad, stop it," he whined as his father ruffled his hair some more before stopping.

Harry grinned up at his Dad and was about to open his mouth when a loud pop occurred that made his jump slightly before he saw his Uncle Sirius standing next to them.

"Uncle Sirius!" he shouted, giving him a bear hug to which he returned before letting him go.

"Hey Harry…" Sirius ruffled his hair some more before turning to his father, "James, we need to talk."

Harry quieted at the serious tone of his Uncle's voice and saw that his mother and father also had a worried look on their faces before James nodded.

"Lily, you mind helping Harry get his stuff on board. I'll see you back at home, all right?"

"Sure," Lily replied before giving him a quick kiss on the lips and taking the trolley.

"Hey Harry…have fun at Hogwarts, okay? Listen to your teachers there. Your mom and I will owl you later this week," James knelt down and hugged him briefly.

A sudden feeling of loneliness overcame Harry and he hugged his father back tightly before he could get up again. Burying his face in his father's shoulder Harry could feel tears starting to form before he forced them not to come. Boys never cried…that was the rules…

After a few seconds, he let his father go and James stood back up. "Bye Dad…" Harry said before turning around and running over to where his mother was lifting up his trunk with the help of a porter.

"Bye Harry!" he heard his father's call after him.

He barely noticed that quite a few people who were boarding the train or even getting off had started to stare at his father and Uncle Sirius, whispers of excitement at actually seeing the two most famous Aurors at the train station…

"Mum, need help?" he asked as he approached his mother who had just finished handing the last part of the trunk to the porter who was now shoving it into a compartment filled with other students' trunks.

"No, I'm fine Harry. Thank you though," his mother replied as two distant pops told him that his father and Sirius had Apparated away…probably back to Auror headquarters, he guessed.

"Where's Hedwig?" he asked, curious as his trolley was now empty except for a small tote bag that his mother handed to him. It carried his robes and some things to do on the train.

"She's in the pet compartment, young master," the porter that had been helping suddenly poked his head out, "you may see her later."

Suddenly the whistle of the train cut off everyone and the conductor blared in a loud voice, "ALL ABOARD!"

Harry suddenly panicked as he realized that he wouldn't be seeing any of his parents for at least a few months…the longest he had gone without seeing them, and a swooping feeling of homesickness overcame him. He suddenly hugged his mother tightly before she gently pried him off of her.

"Harry, don't worry. Your father and I will owl you so you don't get lonely. If you ever need to owl us, just remember, Hedwig can find us, all right?" his mother smiled and Harry saw tears in her eyes.

"All right," he smiled, trying to put on a brave front, but inwardly he was failing…

"Now, go and have fun at Hogwarts. Your father and I are proud of you," she turned him around and pushed him gently towards the stairs to the compartments inside the train.

Harry walked up and inside before the doors closed behind him. He suddenly turned around and pressed his face up against the window as the train sounded it whistle again and started to move out of the station. Harry watched as his mother grew smaller and smaller until he blinked and suddenly she was gone.

Sighing, he picked up his bag and headed towards the compartments. Each one he peeked in was full until he came upon one that was empty and sat in it. He looked outside as the city became fields an occasional marker pole flying by. There was some shuffling outside of his door and he turned to see the door to the compartment he was in slide open and a boy his age poke his head in.

He had red hair and freckles dotted his sheepish face. There was some dirt on his nose, but the boy didn't seem to notice it. "Hey mate, mind if I join you? All others are full…"

"Sure," Harry moved his bag over as the boy grinned and pulled his own trunk in. Harry got up to help him and together they managed to stuff the boy's trunk on the top shelf before the two of them collapsed into the chairs across from each other.

"Thanks. I'm Ron, Ron Weasley," the boy introduced himself, extending his hand.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter," Harry grinned as he reached a hand out and shook the other boy's hand.

"No…_the_ Harry Potter?" Ron's shaking faltered and he sat back, a stunned expression on his face.

Harry felt his face grow warm as he said in a quiet voice, "Yeah…"

"Do…um; do you have…you know…the scar?" Ron asked sheepishly and Harry grinned to show that he wasn't really angry.

"Yeah, see," he lifted up his bangs and saw Ron's eyes widened as he took in the lightning bolt scar. He knew his mother told him that it was the result of the rebounded curse Voldemort had tried to kill him with, but what was the harm of it showing it off, especially to a boy he felt would be his first friend.

"Wicked," Ron breathed before sitting back, "Fred and George said that they saw your father outside along with Sirius Black, but I thought they were kidding when they mentioned that you were probably going to go to Hogwarts this year."

"Fred and George?" Harry asked, confused.

"Oh yeah," Ron grinned sheepishly, "They're my older brothers. Twins…troublemakers my mum calls them, but they like pulling pranks."

"They've been going to Hogwarts?" Harry asked before he mentally slapped himself for such a stupid question.

"Yeah," if Ron thought it was stupid, he didn't seem to care, "they're going to be Third Years this year. Percy, my other brother, is going to be a Fifth Year Prefect."

Harry tilted his head, wondering why Ron sounded a bit sullen at mentioning Percy.

"Ah," Ron shrugged, "don't worry. Percy loves to follow the rules. He's too strict. I've also got two other brothers, Charlie and Bill. Both graduated some time ago. Charlie's in Romania studying dragons while Bill's in Egypt working in the tombs. My younger sister, Ginny's going to be going to Hogwarts next year."

"Wow," Harry had never heard of such an extended family, "you've got a lot of brothers and sisters."

"Just one sister. Ginny's the youngest of all of us," Ron corrected him before pulling out a scruffy looking rat, "this is Scabbers. He's kinda old, but not that much."

"Cool. Hedwig, my owl, is in the pet compartment. The porter said I shouldn't really take her here…" Harry watched as Ron set the rat down to which it promptly closed its eyes and fell asleep.

"Don't worry about it. Last year, Fred and George told me they set the owls loose on various compartments to which the porter was peeved about because of the feathers and other things the owls left behind after each was rounded up," Ron replied. "But Percy's got an owl this year so he's probably patrolling the pet compartment. Wish I had an owl but dad can't aff-"

Ron suddenly stopped as his face and ears turned a bit pink and he looked down into his bag, finding something in there suddenly interesting.

Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not be able to afford an owl. Even though he had money, he wasn't allowed to use it until just a month ago when his parents took him to Diagon Alley and to Gringotts Bank. He decided to tell Ron about it to cheer him up and was relieved when his friend smiled at his father antics in the Muggle world.

"So what's the Muggle world like?" Ron asked and Harry blinked; surprised that Ron didn't know much about the Muggle life. He proceeded to tell Ron about various Muggle stuff.

They were still talking when a gentle knock on their door made them stop and Harry looked up to see a portly old woman pushing a cart full of sweets. He opened the compartment door.

"Can I get you boys anything?" the woman asked.

Harry's eyes bugged at the numerous things that were littered on the cart. He pulled out some of the money he had in his pants and asked the woman how much would he be able to buy. He didn't notice Ron's shocked expression at the money he was holding.

"If you want, you can try a little of everything dear," the old woman said and Harry nodded before making his purchase. He stepped back into the compartment and closed the door with his foot before dumping everything on to an empty chair next to Ron. Looking up, he saw Ron's barely masked jealous expression before he gestured to the pile.

"Here, take some. I won't be able to finish everything," he said and Ron looked at him before he nodded.

"Thanks mate!" Ron picked a few things before tossing him a small box that said Chocolate Frogs. "Here, try these. Also tell me which card you got. I'm missing a couple."

"Are they really frogs?" Harry asked, as he opened the box.

"No, just charmed," Ron replied, stuffing his face with some gummy worms that wriggled a bit before the charm wore off.

Harry jumped slightly as the chocolate frog suddenly jumped up and landed on the window before it started sliding off. "Oops," Ron caught the frog for him and Harry took it, the spell wearing off. He nibbled a part of the frog's legs just to be sure it wasn't a real frog and tasted chocolate. Shrugging mostly to himself, he ate the rest of the chocolate frog before picking up the card that had a man's picture on it.

"So this is Dumbledore," he said.

"Oh him," Ron said, "I've got a few of him. Why don't you keep him and start collecting?"

"Okay," Harry flipped the card over and read over a brief description of Dumbledore before turning it back around. He blinked as he saw that Dumbledore had disappeared. He remembered his mother telling him about moving pictures, and he had only seen one once, but now he believed it as Dumbledore walked back into the picture, waving to him.

They ate the rest of the treats with Harry experimenting in some of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Jelly Beans, before Ron asked in between mouthfuls of food and cakes.

"So what's your Quidditch team?"

"Quidditch?"

"What," Ron almost did a spit-take before managing to swallow the food he had at the last minute. "You don't know what Quidditch is?"

"Well…my dad gave me a broom for my birthday, but mum forbade him from telling me anything about Quidditch. I mean, he told me that there is a Quaffle, Bludgers, and Snitch, but that's about it," Harry quickly defended himself.

"Wow, your mum's strict," Ron blinked.

"Yeah," Harry said in a glum voice, "but she's mum. Dad's stricter…"

"Your dad?"

"Yeah," apparently Ron took in his discomfort and quickly changed the subject.

"Okay…at least you know about the balls. Here's the other stuff…"

* * *

James frowned as Sirius paced before him, two other Aurors, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody. It was late afternoon and while most of the Ministry had already gone home, the Auror office was always open, 24/7.

"So it's worst than what the team returning from Winchester said," Moody growled, his magical eye rolling around in a way to make anyone staring at it for long, a bit green.

"Apparently," Sirius stopped his pacing and faced them. "We're now getting reports from northern Scotland that there are chimera attacks."

"Oh, fun," Kingsley replied a bit sarcastically.

"Shut up," Moody cut him off, "we'll need information. Potter, you're heading out. Gather your team and I'll inform Crouch to do the same."

James blinked in surprise, "Wait a minute sir…are Crouch's Aurors also going?"

"You betcha," Moody replied, "even though they're Dark magic users, they're still good if chimeras are there. You're in charge so they'll be subordinate to you."

"Yes sir," James said, "how soon should we be out of here?"

"By tomorrow morning," Moody replied.

"Sirius?" James turned to his best friend but he was two steps ahead.

"Already on it," Sirius opened the door and walked out of Moody's office, headed to alert the various members of a small team that James knew by heart.

"Shacklebolt?"

"Going to Crouch sir," Kingsley left the room, leaving only him and Moody.

"Potter," Moody walked around to his desk and sat in it his magical eye still rolling around.

"Sir?"

"Dumbledore's been keeping me informed about the current situation. This is near Hogwarts so if there are any signs of big trouble, alert Dumbledore immediately before coming back here. If the Dark Forces are rising again, we should be prepared," Moody said gravely.

"Understood sir," James replied. He moved to head out of Moody's office and to send a quick message to Lily saying that he wouldn't be home for a few days when Moody stopped him again.

"James," the second in command of the Auror Task Force said.

James turned around, "Sir?"

"Be careful out there."

* * *

They were in the midst of discussing Quidditch when a loud commotion was heard outside that stopped both Harry and Ron. They both looked up at each other before looking outside. Harry got up and opened the door. What he saw made him frown in anger.

A girl with long bushy brown hair was on the ground, her wand drawn, but three boys towered over her, their faces snide and laughing. Another boy was by her side, his wand not drawn but he looked a bit fearful.

"You filthy little mudblood, thinking that you can actually walk the halls as you please," the boy in the middle said in a haughty voice. He noticed that the boy had pale blond hair and his face was twisted into an arrogant expression.

"Hey! Stop it," Harry called out, stepping out of the compartment and towards them. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ron following him.

"Who in bloody hell are you?" the boy swore looking up at the two of them. "Oh wait…red head, freckled face, and more kids than they can afford. You've got to be a Weasley."

"Sod off," Harry placed a hand on Ron's shoulder to stop him from doing anything rash.

"Don't know who…" the blond-haired boy started before he trailed off, his eyes looking directly at Harry's forehead. "You're Harry Potter aren't you?"

"Harry Potter?" the boy and girl on the ground whispered and Harry glanced at them before staring back at the blond haired boy who put away his wand and extended his hand out.

"Draco, Draco Malfoy," the boy introduced himself, "you'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others and that Muggle-borns shouldn't really be allowed into schools where they taint the blood. I can help you there."

Harry stared at the offered hand before batting it away. "I can figure it out for myself thank you very much," he said in a cold voice.

"Fine then," Malfoy looked a bit red in the face before he spun around, "Crabbe, Goyle, let's go." The three boys disappeared down the hall and Harry knelt down, offering a hand to the boy and girl who grabbed it and pulled themselves up.

"Come on, we've got room in our compartment," he helped them in before taking a seat himself.

"Thanks," the boy started, "the name's Neville. Neville Longbottom."

"Hermione," the girl with the bushy hair said in a quiet voice that Harry thought could have been stronger if she hadn't been beaten up by Malfoy and his goons. "Hermione Granger."

"You're Muggle-born aren't you?"

"Yes," she snapped her head up, her eyes blazing with anger as she stared at Ron.

"Hey, hey, chill. I don't mind," Ron backed away, holding his hands up defensively.

Harry was confused… "Ron?"

"You're really Harry Potter?" Hermione turned her gaze on him before Ron could say anything.

"Yes," Harry lifted up his bangs once more, showing his scar.

"I've read a lot about you. I brought some extra books for some light reading," she added, "didn't really expect you to help me though."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, confused.

"What, you mean you don't know?" Neville asked, surprised.

"Huh?"

"Your parents probably shielded you from the Wizarding World, right?" Hermione deducted and Harry nodded, "then I don't blame you."

"What, wait…" Harry held up his hands, "what's going on?"

"Since You-Know-Who-"

"Huh?"

"You know…You-Know-Who…was defeated."

"Oh, Voldemort?"

"Shh!" both Ron and Neville hissed at him.

"Don't say his name," Ron said.

"Uh…okay."

"Anyways, since You-Know-Who was defeated, there's been a few laws made by the deputy minister, Malfoy's father, that the Minister's actually passed. Some of them harshly forbidding Muggle-born people like me to actually go to Hogwarts."

"So then-"

"Professor Lupin and Professor Dumbledore personally brought me my own letter and told me that I had special permission to go," Hermione said, looking a bit sheepish, "it's like a scholarship thing."

"Oh," Harry finally understood.

"Anyways," Hermione brightened, trying to change the topic, "we should get ready. I was on my way back from the front and the conductor said that we be getting to Hogwarts soon. My robes and things are a few compartments down so I'll see you when we get off, all right?"

Without a second word, Hermione suddenly stood up and left the compartment. Neville however took his time and looked a bit nervous the whole time. "It was nice meeting you Harry, Ron." He left, closing the door quietly.

Harry glanced at Ron who shrugged before pulling out a wrinkly, patchy robe from his bag and began to get dressed. Harry took out his own robe and began to get changed.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Thank you to all those who've been reading this fic. Sorry it took so long in updating, but I've been bogged down by my summer project. Only recently have my muses been hitting me about this. Anyways, next chapter should be up soon!


	9. Transfiguring to Potions

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters associated with the books do not belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own my own original characters. Please ask if you would like to use them.

**Author's Notes: **Some things, like Harry's schedule, might not stay consistent with the book and plus I'm crunching a lot of things together. It makes for a far more interesting story…And also, I guess I should mention this, some of the HP characters may seem a bit OOC, at least since this is an AU…

_Chapter 8 – Transfiguring to Potions_

Harry and Ron woke up early the next morning, eager to start their classes and headed downstairs to the Great Hall for breakfast. They were joined by Hermione who still looked shyly around, as if she couldn't believe that she was here. Though they were tentatively still friends, Harry still felt a bit resentful about their actions towards Professor Lupin's during last night's speech.

It wasn't until in the midst of breakfast that Hermione, buried slightly in a textbook being a completely bookworm that she emerged and glanced at Harry.

"Do you know Professor Lupin?" she asked and Harry nearly choked on a gulp of his orange juice. Ron helpfully slapped him on his back as he coughed and swallowed a bit painfully.

"Come again?" he asked, his voice slightly raspy from the acidic properties of the juice before he cleared his throat again.

"You didn't seem to be worried when Professor Dumbledore mentioned he was a werewolf. In fact, you looked angry at those of us who were whispering."

Harry shrugged, "I just feel that no one should be discriminated, that's all, werewolf or not."

"Oh," Hermione didn't look too convinced, "I thought it was fascinating that he is a werewolf and that the Ministry actually let him teach here. I thought a decree went through that prevented those with different blood to teach at Hogwarts or anywhere else.

"But anyways," she continued on in a rush, her eyes sparkling, "I read that the properties of a Wolfsbane Potion are very hard to make, but very potent. It's utterly fascinating to read such a thing! I hope maybe we can try to make it during Potions!"

Harry and Ron's jaws had dropped slightly open as she babbled on about her studies. They had never met anyone who was such a bookworm before!

"She's mental," Ron whispered in Harry's ear and Harry grinned before a shadow dropped over all of them and a kind calm voice spoke up.

"The Wolfsbane Potion won't be made by first years. It's more for your N.E.W.Ts studies if you do get into the Potions class," Lupin's voice made all three of them turn around, slightly embarrassed, "however," he smiled, "you will do some research during your first year here."

"Oh! Professor, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there…if I had known-"

"It's all right Miss Granger," Lupin held up a hand, "there is no need to apologize. I'm just surprised that you know so much about the Wolfsbane Potion."

"Yes, professor," her eyes sparkled again, "ever since you and Professor Dumbledore took me to Diagon Alley I've been reading up on all of my textbooks! And I've brought a few extra for light reading!"

"Oh?" Lupin asked mildly.

"Yes," Hermione was not to be deterred, "I personally think that the laws against Muggle-borns and werewolves are quite harsh. I don't believe they should exist."

Harry tilted his head, a new perspective of Hermione Granger entering into his head. Maybe she wasn't as bigoted as he had originally thought. And apparently neither was Ron as he was nodding in agreement to her words.

"My dad works at the Ministry, though at the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, and he thinks that what Lucius Malfoy and Fudge are doing are stupid," Ron chimed in.

"Professor, please don't take this the wrong way, but we really support you even though lots of people think werewolves shouldn't be allowed in society. We're not looking for House points either," Hermione trailed off as Remus smiled broadly.

"Thank you Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley. You two are very kind," Lupin replied before handing each of them a parchment, "I'm afraid that the only reward I have now is your schedules…but come see me after class, all right?"

"Sure thing," Ron replied before Professor Lupin moved off to continue to distribute the schedules to the rest of the Gryffindors.

Harry glanced at his schedule and found that they had History of Magic first before Transfiguration with Professor Lupin then lunch and finally Potions all in the first day. The rest of the week didn't look good either. It looked like Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and more of the same classes.

"Harry," Harry glanced up to see Hermione looking at him with a curious gaze, "did you think we were going to be bigoted against werewolves like Professor Lupin?"

He had to admit, for someone who was in his year; Hermione was pretty shrewd and clever at picking up things. He shrugged, "Didn't know…a lot of people were whispering…"

"It's bad enough to be discriminated if you're Muggle-born…but to be something that you were forced to be…that's worst," the bushy brown haired girl said.

"Not as bad as being blood traitors," Ron piped up and Harry glanced at him.

"Huh?"

"My whole family's pureblood, but in the eyes of most of the Nobles, we're just a bunch a blood traitors," Ron replied feigning indifference as they got up to leave to their History of Magic class.

"Nobles?" Hermione's eyesbrows shot up in excitement and surprise, "I've read all about them! You're part of the Nobles?!"

"The what?!" Harry was confused.

"You haven't heard about the Nobles?!" Hermione rounded on him as they climbed up the moving stair cases, careful not to step on some of the hidden places. "The Noble Wizarding Families of the World are all pure-blood and each can trace their lineage back to at least one of the Founders of Hogwarts and other schools around the world like Beauxbatons, Drumstrang, Salem Academy, Dragon-Phoenix, Meddina and others!

"There's a list in _A History of Magic_, but I know it's incomplete. One thing for sure, the list is just a bit too short. Only like five family names are listed on there, one of them is the Malfoys, the Bones, the Sadows, the Blacks, and your family Ron."

"Well, we're not really considered part of the Nobles because of our association," Ron seemed embarrassed.

"Sirius Black is part of the Nobles, but I don't think he's that arrogant…" Harry tried to defend his father's best friend without giving away too much.

"Yes, but that's only him represented as an Auror. Who knows?" Hermione shrugged. Harry shrugged in return; he didn't really know how to answer the question without giving away too much.

They entered their History of Magic class taught by the ghost Professor Binns and left there a couple of hours later, all of them a bit sleepy-eyed, with the exception of Hermione who looked positively excited after learning about…goblins or something of that nature. Harry could barely keep his eyes open in his first class and Ron had fell asleep in the middle of the lecture, but the ghostly professor didn't really notice that half of his class had fallen asleep and kept droning on and on.

"Let's see, Transfiguration!" Hermione said in a fairly loud voice, startling the two of them from their dazed walk as they followed the rest of the first year Gryffindors to the second floor of Professor Lupin's classroom.

"Huh, oh…" Ron shook his head to make himself more awake before stretching and nearly took Harry's head off with his bag swinging about.

"Hey!" Harry mock glared at his friend, "watch it!"

"Oh, sorry," Ron grinned sheepishly as they walked into the classroom and found seats near the front. Harry had always liked sitting in the back of the classroom during his Muggle school days and Ron seemed to have a preference for sitting in the back, but Hermione had urged them to sit near the front. So they agreed a bit reluctantly.

Harry thought that it would have been all Gryffindors until to his dismay he saw the Slytherins walk in, Malfoy with his lackeys Crabbe and Goyle following behind him. He saw the blond Slytherin shoot him a dark look and returned one with equal measure.

"Not Slytherins," Ron whispered as they sat down across from the Gryffindors, a clear distinction of the Houses between the straight line down the middle of the desks.

"Shhh!" Hermione hissed at them as Professor Lupin walked into the classroom and the room immediately quieted down.

"Welcome children," Remus had a gift of keeping the children quiet through his voice as he stood in front of them; hands clasped a pleasant expression on his face, "to the art of Transfiguration. Here you will learn the complex spells to turn an object into another shape and form. You will learn how to transform parts of your body into different sizes, shapes, and color. You will also learn how to do this-"

He flicked his wand and a Gryffindor named Lavender Brown's textbook turned into a cat that prowled around the desk a bit before he flicked his wand again and it returned to a textbook. Murmurs and excited whispers immediately erupted and Harry hoped to do something like what Professor Lupin did but was disappointed as through the whole class he made them take notes and finally in the last half-hour had them try to turn a matchstick into a pin.

Only Hermione managed to do so by the end of class and Lupin's eyes were bright with joy as he praised and examined Hermione's shiny and pointy pin. "Now I want a foot long parchment on the properties of changing form due by next class," he called out as the class left to head to lunch. Harry got up and noticed both Ron and Hermione moving towards Professor Lupin and decided to head to lunch without them when he was called back.

"Harry, please stay," Remus called to him and he turned back around and followed his two friends up to the professor's desk.

"You said you wanted to see us after class?" Hermione spoke up a bit worried but nonetheless still eager to learn.

"Yes, though your first day hasn't ended yet, I was wondering how all three of you were coping so far?" the werewolf asked.

"Coping?!" Ron was surprised and Harry found it a little odd that his uncle was singling the three of them out from the rest.

"It's been hard, especially for Dean and I," Hermione replied quietly.

"Ah," Remus nodded, "then do you mind if I pull you and Dean after our next class so I may be able to talk with you two some more?"

"I'll tell him, Professor," Hermione beamed.

"Thank you," he turned to Ron and Harry, "and the two of you?"

"Harry I understand, but what's this got to do with me?" Ron asked, confused.

Harry poked his friend sharply in ribs.

"The Daily Prophet's been publishing more and more of your father's feud with Lucius Malfoy and I hope that Mr. Malfoy hasn't been bothering you…"

"He did offer his hand in friendship to me," Harry spoke up, "but I refused."

There was a blank unreadable expression on his Uncle Remus' face before he nodded slowly, "Just be careful Harry. The Malfoys are well connected…"

"So?" Harry replied, suddenly feeling a bit defiant, "that doesn't mean he should go bullying others around."

Lupin's face broke into a grin and he ushered them towards the door, "I shouldn't be keeping you three from lunch. I'll see you later."

The abrupt dismissal confused Harry, but he reluctantly left as the door to Remus' classroom closed, leaving them in the hall. His stomach rumbled in protest and he realized that he was quite hungry. The morning's lessons had taken a lot out of him and the three of them made their way down to the Great Hall where a lot of students were already eating.

"So you do know Professor Lupin," Hermione looked at him shrewdly as food appeared in front of where they were sitting and they dug in.

"Not really," Harry replied evasively, "my dad and mum went to school with him."

Hermione didn't look convinced but turned and started to eat while burying herself in another textbook.

"Is that all she does is study?!" Ron whispered in his ear and Harry grinned. They dug into their lunches and left soon after, leaving Hermione in the Great Hall, still absently eating and studying at the same time. Harry felt truly happy as he and Ron headed up to the Gryffindor Common Room to drop off their books and pick up their Potions textbook. He thought he would have been lost in Hogwarts without any friends, but meeting Ron and then his housemates made him feel a lot less homesick. Ron was his first true friend and he had a feeling that the red-head was going to become his best friends as the years went by.

After they had finished dropping off their textbooks and picking up their new ones, they rushed down to Potions, not realizing that it was all the way in the dungeons. And with the staircases moving so much, it actually took them a while to get down to the dungeons, but thankfully, they made it with a few seconds to spare.

"Where were you two?" Hermione hissed at them as they sat next to her, "I don't want to lose house points with Professor Snape on the first day!"

"Fancy you saying that, Miss Perfect," Ron grumbled back to her, but immediately shut up as the greasy-haired professor came into the room, robes billowing behind his fast-paced walk.

Harry glanced quickly around and noticed to some degree of annoyance that they were in a double class with the Slytherins. And Malfoy was glaring daggers at him for his rejection of friendship during the train ride into Hogwarts. He was determined to ignore Malfoy's glares and instead, watched as Professor Snape stared at all of them with the utmost bored expression on his face. Like Professor Lupin, he had a certain way to make the whole room fall silent with just his presence.

"Potions, is the subtle science and art of making droughts and drafts to cure a poison, prevent death, or even make you feel like the luckiest person in the world," Snape began quietly, "There will be no foolish wand-waving in here, and I don't expect you first-year dunderheads to understand its beauty."

The Potions teacher looked down at a parchment that was in his hand, "Roll call…"

It was as if everyone in the room was suddenly as timid as a mouse and squeaked out "Here!" or "Present!" when he called their names.

"Ah…Harry Potter," Snape said in a sneering voice which surprised Harry as he blinked and stared at Snape. "Our new celebrity."

Immediately a wave of resentment flooded Harry's emotions and he frowned slightly. "Present," he said, wondering why Snape was staring at him with a look of intense dislike.

"Hmph, I expect you to be. Missing my classes will result in severe punishment and detension," Snape shot back.

Harry was about to reply back when an elbow into his ribs by Hermione shut him up and he just glared resentfully at Snape who turned his attention back to the parchment and continued his roll call. He didn't understand why the Potions professor disliked him so much – was it just because he was The-Boy-Who-Lived? Even though Hermione and Ron had helpfully told him why he was famous and his mother also told him about his miraculous survival from the Killing Curse he didn't understand why Snape hated him.

Deciding not to dwell too much on it, he brought his attention back to what Snape was now saying about the first potion they were going to attempt to make. It was a potion to cure boils and he had them take some notes down before attempting to mix the potion.

For a subject that involved pouring things in and mixing them, Harry found potions to be hard and complex. It was almost like being back in his science classes at his Muggle school – and he didn't exactly like the chemistry part that came with his science classes.

Next to him, Hermione managed to make her potion a pale green, exactly what it was supposed to be while he and Ron were struggling with theirs. By the end of the class, Snape had given at least twenty points to the Slytherins, only five to the Gryffindors and "accidentally" spilled his and Ron's dull yellow looking potion to the floor where it started to slowly eat away at the stones.

Harry left potions angry and marched straight up to his room, Ron hot on his heels. He threw his bag against the trunk at the foot of his bed and sat down heavily on his bed. Taking off his glasses, he rubbed his eyes for a few seconds before putting them back on and staring across at Ron who was in the middle of yawning and stretching.

"Malfoy's potion was the same color as ours and he gets at least ten points!" Ron grumbled as he started to change out of his school robes and into some normal clothes before they went down to dinner.

"I'm just glad its over right now. I don't even want to be drinking any of that stuff," he replied, changing out of his robes.

"Got any reason why he hates you?"

"No clue," Harry replied.

"Anyways, I'm starving mate, let's go get some food," Ron clapped him on the back and Harry grinned, his dark mood uplifted by the prospect of good food. They headed downstairs and out of Gryffindor Tower, the first day of classes done.

* * *

Hunting for dangerous magical creatures, especially ones conjured up by summoning, was never an easy job for Aurors, but James and his team were very well-versed in the art. Even so, it was still a long process and he was currently housed up in one of the local villages within the area of the attacks' inns. Emmeline Daigger was the leader of Crouch's Aurors for this mission and while she had deferred to him as the ranking leader, she still tried to undermine him even before they even caught a hint of any of the magical creatures. The first attempt was where they would be staying for the next few nights.

Emmeline had suggested they spread out through the various villages throughout the area, but he had rejected that idea. They needed to be in close proximity to one another and the villages were at least a few miles away from each other. He had Gideon Appleby perform a scrying to see the nature of the recent attacks and the Auror had determined that the chimeras and a few other dark creatures that had been attacking the villages were summons; which meant that they probably had to hunt down the summons along with the source and neutralize them.

He had decided to divide the Aurors up and place them in three separate villages instead of the eight villages in the surrounding area. Gideon's scrying had suggested that three towns had the most concentrated auras of the summoned creatures and those were the three he had placed his fellow Aurors in. Now, all of them were camped out in the inns and houses that some of the villagers had provided to them, rotating watches every three hours.

It was his watch at the moment, and he glanced at his watch. Two in the morning and no attacks yet. He hadn't expected an attack right off the bat and knew that whoever was summoning the creatures probably sensed the powerful auras of the Aurors arriving. He wanted that to happen, even though a few like Emmeline didn't understand what he was gaining from outright announcing themselves. He had a hunch that whoever had been summoning the creatures would scoff at their presence and let them settle in for a couple of days before continuing their attack.

He had placed Sirius in charge of one of the three groups and of course had Emmeline in charge of the other group while he led the small group here. They had found out through a day of investigating and questioning the villagers that the attacks occur in one town before proceeding to the next, all in a clockwise pattern before starting over again.

As he stared out into the sleep village's houses and roads, some still lit, but mostly dark now, a frown appeared on his face. They had been dealing with a steady increase of magical creature attacks over the past few years…was it a sign of Voldemort's return? So far, the Ministry didn't believe a word they said and the _Daily Prophet_ was quick to agree.

"Sir, I've just finished a call with Sirius and Emmeline," a soft and gentle voice spoke behind him, bringing his gaze from the window towards the source of the voice. A gentle looking man, just a couple of years older than him with soft brown eyes and the demeanor of someone who definitely didn't look like could hurt a fly stared back at him. But James knew better than to under estimate the man standing in front of him. Colin Thatcher may have looked weak, but he was one of the best Aurors in service.

"How many times have I told you not to call me sir?" James frowned before a crooked grin tugged at the corners of his lips.

"My apologies sir, but you are the ranking leader of this mission," Colin inclined his head slightly, "only when we are off duty may I dispense with the formalities."

"Colin," James shook his head before sighing, "never mind…what's going on?" He knew that he would never understand how a gentle person like Colin Thatcher would be one of Crouch's Aurors. He couldn't even fathom a guess as to the rumors that Colin and his wife Marion could even use the Unforgivables, but then again, he knew that people changed. Colin was a Hufflepuff back in his old school days…

"No reported activities, but Emmeline did say that there was something unusual with one of the villagers a couple of hours ago. She sent two of her team to tail the villager and they have yet to report back."

"How long did she give them before they were to report back?"

"A couple more hours," he replied.

"All right. Keep me informed," he nodded, wondering if Emmeline had found a lead to this mystery. If there was one good thing about Crouch's Aurors, it was that they had the most peculiar way of finding the right thing to start a full blown investigation.

"Sir," Colin inclined his head slightly before turning around and walking up another set of stairs to his room to get some quick shut-eye.

James returned his gaze to the sleepy village down below and tilted his head in puzzlement as he saw a female villager stumble slightly on the road, apparently in a drunken stupor. But what puzzled him was that the lights to the tavern had been off for a couple of hours now…why was this woman walking drunkenly on the roads right now? She didn't seem to have a bottle in her hand, at least from James' vantage point…and none of the nearby houses had their lights one.

Come to think of it, before he had talked to Colin, she hadn't even appeared in his gazes down on the village streets…and he had only been talking to Colin for about less than a minute. As he continued to stare at her, his eyes widened in surprise as she suddenly stopped her plodding and turned her head to stare straight up at him.

Their eyes met and her eyes glowed red…

Before she suddenly leapt from the ground towards him, her hand hooked and showing vicious claws, her mouth elongated and wide opened, far more than a normal Muggle or Wizard would have.

_Spawn!_ The jolt of recognition hit James as with his years of Auror and Quidditch honed reflexes threw himself back from the window, his wand already drawn out, a spell already forming on his lips.

"_Coronum_" he shouted just as the dark creature crashed through the window.

All hell broke loose after that.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Wow…its been a least two years since I wrote in this story. Many apologies for not picking this story up for such a long time. Its partially because I wanted to really make sure I was doing a good job writing this story and partially because I got sidetracked with life, other fandoms, and the fact that _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ is coming out next week! I just finished watching _Order of the Phoenix_ and absolutely loved the Order of the Phoenix versus the Death Eaters battle during the last few scenes. Awesome wand work and stuff…. Hopefully I will write more in the next coming weeks unless I'm buried again with work, fandoms, and of course, reading _Deathly Hallows_. Thank you to all those who reviewed and stay supportive of this fic!


	10. Flying in Mystery

That Which Can't Be Seen

**A Harry Potter Alternate Universe fic**

By: Shadow Chaser

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters associated with the books do not belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own my own original characters. Please ask if you would like to use them.

**Author's Notes: **Some things, like Harry's schedule, might not stay consistent with the book and plus I'm crunching a lot of things together. It makes for a far more interesting story…And also, I guess I should mention this, some of the HP characters may seem a bit OOC, at least since this is an AU…

_Chapter 9 – Flying in Mystery_

"_Coronum!_" James shouted, blasting the spawn that had tried to ambush him with a burst of white light. The spawn immediately disintegrated, but not before the creature howled a call to its dark allies. He immediately heard the multiple howls of other dark creatures within the vicinity and gripped his wand tighter.

"Sir!" Colin came running down the stairs, along with the other Auror with them bleary eyed, having been abruptly woken up by the spawn crashing through the window and by his spell-casting.

"Spawn," he said roughly before heading to the now broken window and peered outside.

"Joint attack," Kingsley Shacklebolt pointed out in the distance where two different bursts of red firecrackers indicated that they too were under attack. Shacklebolt fired off a couple of red sparks himself, notifying the Sirius and Emmeline's groups that they too were under attack.

More unearthly howls filled the air and the lights on some of the houses in the villages abruptly went on as the villagers woke up. James cursed underneath his breath before leaping out of the window, his robes billowing behind him. There were two almost indistinct thumps of both Kingsley and Colin joining him on the ground before they started to blast spells at some of the dark creatures that ran at them.

"We have to get out of the village's boundaries!" he called to the two who nodded and followed him as he cleared a path through a small horde of jaw-nymphs all squealing at him, their razor sharp teeth crackling in anger. He shot a fire spell from his wand at two of them who were climbing onto a nearby house's windows, making its occupants scream in terror and they both were burnt to a crisp, falling down to the ground dead.

Firing off a few more spells, they slowly made their way to the village's borders, making sure that the creatures that were overrunning the village had followed them.

"James!" Sirius' voice to his left made him turn slightly to see his best friend leading his small group towards them, along with more dark creatures. His best friend abruptly turned and fired off a few rapid spells, destroying at least four of what looked like giant slug-like beasts spewing acidic foam all over the place.

James, Colin, and Kingsley along with those in Sirius' group immediately raised protective shields over themselves as acidic goo from the exploded slug-like creatures rained down upon them. A lovely smell started to filter through his nose and he wrinkled it slightly.

The good thing was that many of the creatures that had followed James and his group out of the village shrank back, trying to press their attack, yet unable to do so at the moment due to acid goo flying all over the place and landing on the ground, rotting away anything that touched it, including some of the dirt and grass.

Suddenly, a piercing wail filled the air, eliciting a groan of pain from James as he covered his ears, trying to drown out the horrible noise, but it wouldn't stop. He gritted his teeth and looked through pained eyes to see that the others also had a hard time against whatever was making that piercing wail. However, beyond them, he noticed to his puzzlement that the dark creatures were looking around, as if suddenly docile before disappearing into thing wisps of black smoke. As the last of the dark creatures disappeared, the wailing abruptly stopped, leaving a ringing sound in his ears.

He tentatively lowered his hands from his ears, every fiber of his being tense, ready for a counter-attack of sorts. There was no way it was this easy…

"Sir…I detect no traces of the creatures that attacked us," Colin said after a few minutes of tense silence.

"Are you sure?" James knew that he really didn't have to ask Colin since the man was the best dark creature scryer they had on the force, but he still didn't want to believe it.

"Yes sir," Colin replied, not at all hurt by his questioning, "it's as if they've just disappeared sir. I can't scry any traces of them."

"Potter!" Emmeline's call from behind them made him turn around to see her half-carrying the bloodied form of one of her team, the others in her group following behind her, wands drawn out, eyes wary.

"Where's Appleby?" he asked, wondering where the other scryer of their team had gone to.

"Dead," Emmeline's lips were thin. "Young says that the person they were tailing abruptly disappeared before being replaced by a cockatrice."

James cursed and clenched a fist before glancing at Young whose face was starting to turn a bit gray. "All right, take her to Hogwarts and make sure Madam Pomfrey tells Dumbledore about what's going on, and then I want you back here. We need to regroup…"

"Yes sir," she nodded curtly, none of her playful prankster attitude showing through as she and Young Disapparated with a loud crack, leaving the six other Aurors and him standing by the village's border. The night's sounds had started to return and the various villagers that had come out during the commotion were starting to return to their homes, all though James could sense that an air of fear had started to surround the community.

Glancing out into the darkened woods once more, he turned to face his team and pointed at Colin. "Thatcher, I want you to set up a seven-point scrying perimeter around the area. Regus and Cheng will help you."

"Sir," Colin nodded before Apparating away along with Andrea Regus and Tomas Cheng to set up the perimeter.

"Shacklebolt, I want you and Quinten to examine the dead creatures to see if there's any distinct magical signatures we can garner from it," he ordered.

"We'll need gloves from the villagers," Will Quinten grimaced, staring at the still acidic goo leftover from when Sirius blasted the slug-creatures apart.

"Do so," James nodded.

"And what about us?" Sirius joined him as the others left to do what they were ordered to do.

"We're going to have the fun job of asking everyone in this village what they were doing just minutes ago. Then we're going to ask the next village and then Emmeline's village."

"You know…we were attacked only by really annoying creatures…" Sirius said as they headed into the village once more, ignoring the debris that had littered the streets from the recent fight.

"Really?" James blinked, "I was attacked by a Spawn…"

"Spawn?!" Sirius half-shouted, "but…who…?" A dark look came over his face, "You don't think its Voldemort, do you?"

"I know he has the power to control spawns and other extremely dark creatures…but…I don't think so. I mean, it was only one spawn and it was easily killed."

"You think it could be a Death Eater behind all of this?"

"Wouldn't put it past them; if it is though, we'll have to be real careful. He or she has evaded us for a long time…so they're good…"

"You don't think it could be…"

"No…" James shook his head, cutting off whatever his best friend was going to say, "all of them had been accounted for during the last year of our school year. Even the Weaver's Council said that there weren't any new ones…"

"But like you said, Voldemort's still alive and he is the-"

"I know…" James' gaze grew dark, "and I know Lily is…"

"I'm not trying to imply anything James, you know that, but I do want to put forth that like you said, there's been an increase in dark creature attacks recently…so maybe another Council is forming?"

"If it is…I still haven't felt my powers returning…"

"Yeah…but if it is a Dreamer…"

"I know…"

* * *

The next week and a half passed by quickly for Harry as his classes took up so much of his time. He had thought he may learn something about Voldemort or anything about complex spells as he had seen his father do occasionally when he sneaked out of his room, but Defense Against the Dark Arts was nothing more than a joke. Professor Quirrell spent most of the time telling them to read out of their textbooks and regaled stories of different dark creatures and attacks on various Muggle, Wizarding, and even other creatures' populace.

Sometimes, when he was asked to elaborate, Quirrell turned slightly pink and muttered something about the weather before proceeding onto another subject. And whenever Harry sat in the classroom, he always thought it smelled a bit funny. Freed and George were convinced that Quirrell had garlic in his turban to prevent vampires from getting to him. It was also odd that every time Harry stared at the back of Quirrell's turban, he would get small twinges of pain from his scar. The first time it happened, he made a small noise of surprise, startling some of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws who were sitting near him.

He had decided to ignore it as it kept happening more and more frequently so not to draw further attention to him, but even that was almost impossible now. He was grateful that both Hermione and Ron, both of whom he had become fast friends with, were able to at least clear a path through small pockets of crowds that wanted to see him as he went from class to class.

As far as he was concerned, History of Magic with the ghostly Professor Binns was not one of his favorite subjects. He had fallen asleep many times in the class and woke occasionally to notice that Hermione seemed to be the only one awake, but even caught her occasionally nodding off.

Herbology with Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff was interesting to say the least. In the first three classes they had with her, at least four Gryffindors nearly got their arms bitten off by vicious plants.

In Charms, which was one of Harry's favorite classes so far, Professor Flitwick, the head of Ravenclaw had squeaked out in surprise at seeing him and toppled from the stack of books he had been standing on before climbing back on. However, Flitwick had also treated him like a normal student, much like McGonagall usually did and for that, he was grateful.

All in all, he was happy at Hogwarts, so much that he had put the initial homesickness of leaving his mother and father behind. Even his housemates were getting used to the fact that The-Boy-Who-Lived was in their house and he had become friends with the three other boys in his dormitories – Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Neville Longbottom. He had met Neville only once before coming to Hogwarts and that was at the Quidditch World Cup four years ago.

But his initial burst of happiness today evaporated suddenly as he, Ron, Hermione and the rest of the First-Year Gryffindors walked out to one of grassy courtyards attached to the east wing of the school. He knew he should have expected the Slytherins to join in their first broom riding lesson taught by Madam Hooch, but just seeing them after having endured a god-awful morning of Potions with them, irritated him.

First-Years weren't allowed to have their own brooms and it had made him sad at first, but he felt cheered by the thought as he saw that Malfoy was staring at one of the school's old brooms with a look of utter disgust. Apparently the stuck-up rich boy wanted to bring his own broom too.

"Line up, students, line up," Madam Hooch had a shock of grey-white hair that was styled like feathers and had piercing gold eyes that gave her hawkish looks an even more fiercer edge.

The four houses respectively stood in four straight lines, holding their borrowed brooms in their hands. Harry felt a bit nervous as he fiddled with the handle of his borrowed Cleansweep 70. While his father had allowed him to ride his Nimbus 2000 a couple of times before he went to Hogwarts, he didn't really know how to properly ride one. His parents never allowed him near their brooms and he had longingly gazed at the ones during the Quidditch World Cup.

Glancing around, he noticed that many of the other students, especially the Muggle-born students were also very nervous. Both Dean and Hermione looked positively ill at the thought of flying on a broom. Malfoy on the other hand, was whispering stories and demonstrating with his hands a few techniques, clearly indicating to the baited breath of the rest of the Slytherin First Years that he knew how to fly one.

"All right students. Put your brooms down on the ground and stand up straight. Once you've done that, place your hand above your broom and say 'Up!'" Madam Hooch said in a loud voice.

The rest of the students did as she had asked and Harry stared at the Cleansweep now lying on the group. "Up!" he commanded in a forceful voice and to his surprise, his broom zoomed immediately to his hand. The shouts of the other students filled the courtyard and he glanced around to see that a few students were having some trouble.

Looking to his left, he saw that Ron had gotten his broom up with two shouts while Hermione was still struggling with hers.

"You have to say it like a command…like teaching a pet of sorts," Harry caught Hermione's eye and told her.

She nodded before taking a deep breath and trying it again. "Up!" the broom zoomed straight up into Hermione's hand and she grinned at him and Ron before nodding her thanks.

A few minutes later, when the rest of the students got their brooms in their hands, Madam Hooch had them mount it and try to kick off gently to hover in the air for a few seconds before pointing their broomsticks down and landing. Everyone was waiting for her to blow her whistle to tell them to start when Neville, nervous and shaking all over, jumped the gun and shot into the air.

Some of the students cried out in surprise as the Gryffindor rose higher and higher, his face panicky and full of fear.

"Mr. Longbottom! Come down this instance!" Madam Hooch raised her wand to help bring Neville back down when suddenly his broom shot off into the distance and slammed against one of the stone walls surrounding Hogwarts. Everyone watched as the boy fell to the ground in a heap before they all ran over.

"Broken wrist…" Harry heard Madam Hooch say as she gently picked up the boy, tears starting to fall down his face. "Come on now…up to the Hospital Wing where Madam Pomfrey can fix you up…"

The crowd of First Years broke apart to make room for her as she headed to the castle.

"If I see so much as a broom in the air while I am gone, that person will be expelled before they can say 'Quidditch'!" she parted her grim warning before disappearing into one of the doors of the castle.

"Did you see that big fat pig fly?" Malfoy immediately said in a loud voice before dipping down and picking a small round object up, "oh look…the idiot left his Remembrall. Maybe if he gave it a squeeze-"

"Give that here, Malfoy," Harry narrowed his eyes in anger. He remembered when Neville received the gift, the day after their first day of classes and had cherished it from his family, especially since it was from his younger sister. The whole group stopped their whispers and stared at him and Malfoy.

"You want it Potter?" Malfoy smiled viciously at him before extending the hand that had the Remembrall in it. Harry swiped at it and missed as the blond-haired boy dangled it out of his reach. "Oops…missed…" Malfoy sneered before mounting his broom and took off. "You want it Potter?!" he shouted back down at Harry, "come and get it!"

Harry immediately felt a wave of anger fill him before he mounted his broom and took off, much to Hermione's and Ron's protests. Ignoring them, he instinctively maneuvered his broom towards Malfoy who had a pole axed expression on his face at seeing him fly.

"Father been teaching you?" the blond-haired Slytherin sneered.

"Actually no…this is my first time flying on a broom," Harry shot back, smirking at the shocked look he now wore.

"Fine then," Malfoy flew higher, "catch me if you can!" With that, the blond took off, much faster than Harry could have anticipated.

He lowered crouched lower onto his broom and _willed_ it to move forward, to catch Malfoy. The air rushed around him as he sped towards Malfoy, chasing him as he flew around and inwardly, while he was angry at the Slytherin, another part of him reveled in the joy he felt while flying. It was so much fun and so wonderful!

He managed to keep up with Malfoy and saw that the boy was getting progressively angrier and angrier before they halted once more, high above the other First Years who looked a lot like specks now.

"Not so tough are you Malfoy? Got no bodyguards like Crabbe and Goyle right?" during one of their classes with the Slytherins, Malfoy's ever present friends Crabbe and Goyle had tried to prank them. However, Hermione was too quick to catch them in the act and they had gotten them in trouble and house points taken off.

"Shut up Potter…you and your stupid Mudblood mother-"

"Don't call my Mum that!" he shot towards Malfoy, intent on ramming him, but the boy ducked out of the way.

"If you're so intent on saving Longbottom's stupid Remembrall, catch it!" with that Malfoy threw the small colorless ball high into the air before it began to drop to the ground.

Harry immediately sped after it, watching it fall its slow arc towards the ground. He didn't really know what he did to catch it, but it involved a flip of sorts and he caught it just before it hit the ground. Pulling himself up on his broom, he skimmed the surface of the grass before dismounting to the wild cheers of his housemates and the others. Only the Slytherins looked put-out with his apparently success.

He was engulfed in hugs, backslaps, and cheers so deeply that he didn't initially hear anything until-

"HARRY POTTER!"

Harry jumped at the sound of Professor Lupin's angry voice and immediately his spirits fell as he saw his father's good friend marching towards them, an indiscernible expression on his face.

"Come with me, this instant," Lupin grabbed him by the arm and he quickly shoved Neville's Remembrall into Hermione's hands before being led away. He briefly saw Malfoy land and smirk at him.

"But Professor…"

"No buts-"

"Uncle Remus…" Harry tried before Lupin held up a hand in silence as he was lead up to Flitwick's classroom.

"Wait out here for a second Harry," Lupin entered the Charms classroom and reappeared moments later with a tall looking boy whom Harry had seen occasionally in the Gryffindor Common Room, usually surrounded by Quidditch maps and textbooks.

"Harry, this is Oliver Wood. Oliver, this is your new Seeker."

Harry's jaw dropped completely…

Lily was in the midst of watching the evening news when she noticed Remus' face in the fireplace. Muting the television set, she walked over to the fireplace.

"Remus?"

"Lily! You won't believe it!"

For a second her heart dropped to her stomach as she feared something had happened to her son just mid-week into the second week of classes at Hogwarts.

"Harry's going to be Gryffindor's new Seeker!"

She blinked and her mind blanked for a second before the only word she could come up with was, "What?!"

"I know, I know…First Years aren't supposed to be allowed to participate in Quidditch House teams, but seriously Lily…you should have seen him _fly_! If you think James had natural talent, Harry's got them in spades! I've petitioned Dumbledore about it and he said it was fine!"

Lily had never seen Remus this excited before, except on the occasion when he had received his OWL and NEWT scores during their fifth and seventh year. "Is he okay? What happened?"

"Just an incident involving Neville Longbottom's Remembrall, but Lily…you and James have to come to the first Quidditch match! You have to see Harry fly!"

"Okay, okay," Lily smiled and laughed a bit, "I'll tell James when he comes back from his mission."

"Good," Remus nodded, "I have to go…I expect dinner to be a rather interesting affair."

"Thanks Remus," Lily replied before his head disappeared from the fire, leaving her alone again. A smile crept over her face as she shook her head. She was so glad that Harry was having a good time at Hogwarts. She had been initially scared that he was going to be ostracized by the other children just because he was The-Boy-Who-Lived, but it looked like he was being accepted by his peers…

She would have to ask Remus more about her sons' friends or perhaps just meet them when the first Quidditch match of the year came.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Wow…this was quite fast. As you can see, I'm starting to breeze over a few things and mash some of the storylines together. And yes, I did give Neville a sister… This is definitely going to start to spin away from the regular Harry Potter universe, though a few events will happen in similar context. Oh yeah…for those of you who've picked up on a clue during Sirius and James' part, you may remember the term "Dreamer" from a very old Harry Potter story I wrote looooong before this one was published. Well, the Dreamers are returning for this fic and I promise, they will be expanded a lot!


End file.
